Officials Confirm Pendleton Marines Going to Middle East : Gulf crisis: Troops have been sent to embarkation points and are being joined by Marines from three other California bases as part of Operation Desert Shield.

U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton and at least three other California bases have left for the Middle East, officials confirmed Saturday.

Units from the 1st Marine Division and 1st Force Service Support Group at Camp Pendleton, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in El Toro, and the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Twentynine Palms have been sent to embarkation points for deployment to the Middle East as part of Operation Desert Shield, said Capt. Rose-Ann Sgrignoli, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton.

Lt. Gene Browne, an El Toro base spokesman, added that Marines from the Tustin Marine Corps--Helicopter--Air Station have also been deployed from Orange County to embarkation points, “but beyond that we really can’t say.”

Sgrignoli would not say how many troops had left or when they had gone. She also did not say where the “embarkation point” is or whether the troops would fly or sail to the Middle East.

However, wives of Marines from Twentynine Palms identified the “embarkation point” as Norton Air Force Base, just east of San Bernardino, and said most had left by Saturday.

“They’ve been planning this all week,” said Laura Redlin, whose husband, Col. Robert Redlin, is a logistics officer with the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, based at Twentynine Palms. “I haven’t seen my husband at all except (Friday) night before he left,” she said.

“There’s a lot of action here, going on all day and all night,” said Kenneth C. McFarland, a disabled veteran who lives in Twentynine Palms.

McFarland said he has seen Greyhound-size buses leaving the base with men inside.

“There are some coming but more leaving,” he said. “It’s about three times the normal activity.”

Cheryl French, a 30-year resident of Twentynine Palms, said she lives near a side exit to the base that the troops have been using “all night and all day for the past few days.”

“We’re used to seeing convoys coming in and out occasionally, but nothing like this,” French said.

Apparently, the Marines left the base in a convoy on a back road. One resident, who lives on that road, said the convoy lasted for 20 minutes.

Twentynine Palms runs a three-week training program for Marines, acquainting them with combat conditions in the desert.

A wire service report quoting unnamed Bush Administration officials said 4,000 Marines from Twentynine Palms were on their way to the Middle East.

Residents around El Toro on Friday were warned about an increase in aircraft noise at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station there.

Despite nervous talk in the last few days about having to make out new wills and prepare for battle, several Marines in Orange County said they had noticed nothing unusual.

“Everything seems the same as normal,” said a Tustin Marine who works on helicopters. “Everybody’s getting ready on stand-by, but we haven’t heard of anybody actually leaving.”

An El Toro Marine wife, whose husband hasn’t been sent anywhere, viewed the situation more stoically.

“I don’t think this thing is going to turn into anything big,” she said. “Most of the wives are having a fit over it, but I’m not going to cry my head off. That’s what my husband is getting paid for.”

Merchants in the immediate area around the bases said all was quiet Saturday.

At Camp Pendleton, civilian and military sources say the level of activity there in the last few days hasn’t been seen since the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

Although there have been reports of increased activity at Camp Pendleton during the latter part of the week, there have been no reports of troop convoys streaming out of the base in the last two days. The base straddles Interstate 5 in northernmost San Diego County and contains a 6,000-foot airstrip.

Residents living along roads leading out of Camp Pendleton said they had not seen or heard any unusual truck or troop convoys out of the base.

Surrounding law enforcement agencies, including Sheriff’s deputies from Orange and San Diego counties and officers from the California Highway Patrol and Oceanside and San Clemente city police departments said they also have received no reports of movement out of the base.

Apparently, military supply activity around San Diego has kept up with the pace of other military activity in California.

Sources said five C-5 Galaxy and C-141 Starlifter cargo planes arrived at North Island Naval Air Station on Coronado about midnight Saturday morning to pick up helicopters and helicopter parts, leaving before sunrise.

The sources said both North Island and Miramar Naval Air Station have seen a steady stream of supplies--including airplane parts, medical supplies and paper--being shipped out.

They also said some U.S. military medical personnel in the San Diego area have been notified they could be leaving Monday aboard the Oakland-based Mercy, a hospital ship.

In addition to the troops from the four Marine bases, units from the Army 101st Airborne Division in Ft. Campbell, Ky., have started making their way to an embarkation point, said Lt. Ronald Sharp, a spokesman at Twentynine Palms.

Already arriving in the Middle East, Sharp said, were units from the Army 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C., a squadron from Shaw AFB in South Carolina, and transport aircraft from Pope AFB in North Carolina.

Times staff writer Nora Zamichow contributed to this story.