A Christmastime Mercy Mission for the Marines : Somalia: Camp Pendleton is abuzz with speculation about another holiday away from home.

Sgt. Tyler Johnson, 28, didn’t know where Somalia was until he was called to a briefing last week and shown a map.

On Thursday, however, he and thousands of other Marines and sailors stationed at Camp Pendleton and El Toro were expecting to spend Christmas in that strife-torn East African country, joining other Pendleton Marines now aboard ships in the Red Sea.

No official troop-deployment orders came from the Pentagon during the day, even after the U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to send a U.S.-led military force to Somalia to ward off attackers so food can be delivered to millions of starving people.

But shopkeepers in Oceanside, just outside Camp Pendleton’s main gates, said they have been hearing talk for days about when the military would ship out, none of which Pendleton officials would confirm.

Cut-Rite barber shop owner Bill Gray said two young Marines came for haircuts Wednesday evening and said they were shipping out for Somalia in just a few hours.

“They asked for ‘high and tight,’ which are really close haircuts,” he said.

Master Sgt. John Farrell, spokesman for Camp Pendleton, said “scuttlebutt aboard base is running rampant.” He said orders warning of deployment have been issued to large portions of Camp Pendleton and the Marine bases in Tustin and El Toro as well as those in Twentynine Palms and Yuma, Ariz.

At the Armed Forces YMCA, Executive Director Glen Bryson said his group will offer baby-sitting for military families attending meetings about the mission.

It’s not as if the Marines aren’t used to being away over the holidays, Johnson noted. Last Christmas he and many of his military buddies were in Saudi Arabia.

Johnson said he is happy that this time the Marines are being sent not to fight an all-out war but to help deliver humanitarian aid.

“I’d rather be helping mankind than fighting. I hope we do some good over there,” he said.

But Lance Cpl. Thomas Diskin said he is worried that the Marines will be under fire and won’t be able to defend themselves.

“I don’t want to be facing fire from an unknown enemy and have my hands tied behind my back until some U.N. guy lets me defend myself,” Diskin said.

In Oceanside, meanwhile, business owners were looking at the prospect of Christmas without their best customers.

“I think it stinks and it is stinky for business too,” said Rosemary Hamilton, manager of Jughead’s, a popular bar for the military.