For Marines, Kuwait’s the Staging Area du Jour

At several heavily guarded locations in this rocky desert, the Marine Corps is assembling combat vehicles, artillery and munitions to equip tens of thousands of troops from bases in Southern California.

Among the vehicles being checked and road-tested Friday was an 18-ton bruiser, nicknamed “Betty,” designed to detect the presence of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

“If we get slimed” -- attacked by such weapons -- “we’re ready,” said Sgt. Clinton Myrick, 22, of Seattle.

The presence of Betty and other similarly equipped vehicles was a reminder that although this effort may resemble a training exercise like those conducted at the Marine desert training base at Twentynine Palms, it is in deadly earnest.

Although the Marine Corps will not discuss how many troops are already here or expected in coming weeks, the entire 45,000-strong 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, headquartered at Camp Pendleton, has been given orders for possible deployment.

Day and night, convoys of vehicles are brought here from ships that have recently arrived in the Persian Gulf bearing all the gear needed to wage war.

Marines from Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms and elsewhere arrive daily by transport plane from the U.S. Other Marine units are on ships headed for the Gulf from San Diego.

For the Marine Corps, it’s the largest offloading of equipment and massing of troops since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. By comparison, the Marine operations in Afghanistan took a fraction of the personnel and equipment.

“It’s enormously complex. There are a lot of moving parts,” said 2nd Lt. Tony King, 31, a native of rural Maine.

At an area called the Arrival Assignment Operations Element, the equipment needed for war is arrayed in neat rows over acres and acres. On a windy, sun-scorched day, Marines went through the laborious task of checking each vehicle to certify that it was ready for combat.

As convoys descended on the area, troops joked that the scene was like Christmas morning, when gift bicycles are feverishly assembled, as they reattached parts that had been removed and packed for shipment.

“I tell them, ‘Go over every vehicle like your life depended on it, because it may,’ ” said Master Sgt. Mike Mummey, 45, of Yucca Valley.

Although the Marines sent a command element to Kuwait in November to establish a base called Camp Commando, the offloading from the ships began only two weeks ago, suggesting that preparations for a conflict are reaching a climax.

The Marines, most of whom arrived within the last two weeks, say the experience has been a mix of the familiar -- the Kuwaiti desert reminds them of the terrain near Twentynine Palms -- and the uncertain.

“I miss my family and friends, but I’m here for them, to make sure they don’t have to live in fear,” said Lance Cpl. Luke Martin, 19, of Oregon. “Saddam Hussein is a threat to the entire world. Somebody has to stop him.”

Among the vehicles sent here for road-testing are several that test for weapons of mass destruction.

Each is equipped with a top-mounted machine gun in case the three-person crew needs to fight its way into a combat zone to take a sample. An air pressure system is meant to keep the crew members safe from harm while they’re collecting samples.

“If Saddam uses those weapons, we’re going to be there to prove the proof so he can’t lie about it,” Myrick said.

The danger of the work breeds a kind of elan.

“I push my boys hard, so when it comes down to it, it’s going to be no big deal,” said Myrick, who supervises a platoon of 12 Marines.

Also being offloaded and checked are light-armored vehicles, which could be equipped with TOW missiles to destroy Iraqi tanks, and heavily armed Humvees, which were used by Marine “hunter-killer” teams in Afghanistan to track down Al Qaeda and Taliban forces.

“We’re all ready,” said Staff Sgt. Abel Leal, 27, of Venice, Calif. “This is our Super Bowl. This is what we’ve been training for.”

Many of the Marines were set for a deployment to Okinawa. Instead, orders were changed at the last moment.

“I knew I was going somewhere, but I never thought it would be here,” said Lance Cpl. Mark Masacek, 19, of San Bernardino. “But this is where the need is.”

“We’re going all the way this time and get the job done,” said Mummey, a 23-year veteran of the Marines. “We’re going to make some history.”