Loved Ones Bid Sad Adieu to Orange County-Based Marines : Separation: Troopers board giant military aircraft and take wing on their mercy mission to famine-ravaged Somalia.

Aiming the camcorder they bought to take pictures of the baby they are expecting, Jayleane Blackman videotaped one of five cargo planes taking off for Somalia shortly after dawn Friday. Her husband Scott was among the more than 100 Marines on board.

The troops are part of an Air Wing squadron nicknamed the Raiders, after the Los Angeles football team. Their planes and jackets bear the team’s insignia.

One crew was on a direct flight to Somalia. The others, after overnight stops in North Carolina and Spain, were expected to arrive in that strife-torn African country in three days.

Their aircraft have tanker capability and will be used to refuel helicopters in the humanitarian mission to bring food to Somalia’s starving population. The four-engine KC-130 Hercules not only can carry enough jet fuel to service 10 helicopters, but it can carry troops and cargo and land on short dirt runways like the kind in Somalia’s interior.

Ultimately, 2,400 Air Wing Marines from stations in El Toro and Tustin are expected to participate in Operation Restore Hope. Another 80 members of the so-called Raiders squadron are scheduled to leave in four more planes today and Sunday.

Blackman, who is pregnant and due April 1, wasn’t certain if her husband, an airplane mechanic, would return home in time for his child’s birth. If he doesn’t make it, how would she notify him of it? “I am hoping I can reach him somehow by telephone,” said the 20-year-old Irvine resident.

Families of other Marines similarly bid bittersweet farewells Friday morning to husbands and fathers. Most were proud to have them involved in a worthy cause, but they struggled with parting, specially during the Christmas season.

Carol Beachler of Irvine comforted her 8-year-old daughter, Chrystal, as Chrystal’s father, Gregory, left. “It is sad he won’t be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” said Chrystal, who then began sobbing and hugging her mother’s waist.

Carol Beachler said the family had been on an emotional roller coaster for days not knowing when Gregory, an electrician, would be shipped out, as his deployment was repeatedly postponed.

Despite her personal trauma, Carol Beachler said she believes that her husband is “doing something for somebody who honestly needs it. These people are really, really desperate.”

Cpl. Patrick Cenkush of Aliso Viejo said he did not want to leave his wife, Janeene, and 2-year-old daughter, Sahar, at Christmas. “I definitely don’t want to do it at all. We never have a holiday together,” he said. Last Christmas, he said, his wife, who is in the Navy, was stationed in Australia and the year before, he was in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield.

Like other families with members leaving for Somalia, the Cenkushes decided to exchange gifts early. “We had our Christmas last night,” Janeene Cenkush said. “I told Sahar that Santa came a little early this year because he knew her daddy was leaving.”

Although her husband is not going on a combat mission, Janeene Cenkush said she has plenty of concerns about his entering a Third World country in the midst of a famine. “I worry about the diseases and I hope they don’t run into any confrontations, and I hope they can handle what they see,” she said, referring to the large numbers of dying people, including children.

“They can train you for all sorts of things, but how can they train you for that?”

Nonetheless, Capt. Ray Descheneaux, a co-pilot seated in the cockpit of one of the planes just moments before takeoff, was anxious to get going.

Descheneaux, 27, said he had participated in relief efforts to bring food to Somalia earlier in the year and was eager to return to help the people whose suffering had moved him. “It burns an impression in your mind,” he said. “At first some of us wondered if we should be there, but once you get there, it is a whole different ballgame. You look down at them and they smile back at you and you know you have done the right thing.”