O.C.-Area Troops Head to Persian Gulf

About 550 Marines and sailors--including at least 210 from Camp Pendleton, the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and the Tustin Marine Corps Air Facility left for the Persian Gulf Monday to provide support should the United States decide to take military action against Iraq.

“This is what we train to do,” said Cpl. Philip Schrode, a spokesman for Camp Pendleton. “I think everyone is prepared and ready to carry out the orders put forth by the commander in chief.”

Troops also left from the Marine Corps Air Station Mirimar, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms and Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz.

According to a news release, the Marines and sailors will provide administrative, logistic, embarkation, transportation, communication and security support to the U.S. forces to be deployed to the Gulf region if fighting breaks out.

“This is preparatory group in case we send some actual war fighters,” said Maj. Margaret Kuhn, a spokeswoman for the El Toro air station.

Kuhn described the mood at the base Monday as one of excitement tinged with apprehension.

“I think the Marines were excited to be going,” she said. “This is what we get paid to do. For some, it was a first deployment, and that’s always exciting for them. Certainly there’s a mixture of apprehension in that, because people just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Kuhn said that the troops left by bus throughout the day. They were taken to March Air Force Base in Riverside to be flown to the Gulf.

Support for the families of the troops, she said, would be provided by the spouses of those who had been deployed in the past.

“Each unit has a key volunteer network,” she said. “It’s like a spousal phone tree where the spouses of Marines who have been through this before kind of help the young ones who have not gone through it. There is a real strong support network of spouses--the main thing is keeping people informed.”