El Toro Alert Hints at Troop Movement : Military: Officials refuse to comment on reports that thousands of Marines are shipping out to the Mideast from Southern California.

Residents surrounding the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro were warned Friday about increasing aircraft noise this weekend, the latest sign that the nationwide military alert in response to Iraqi aggression is being felt on the home front.

Despite outward signs of increased troop activity, military officials refused to confirm reports Friday that thousands of Marines were shipping out from Southern California to the Middle East.

“We don’t discuss troop movements and we don’t discuss deployments,” said Marine Maj. Kathy Wood, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Friday morning, the California Highway Patrol received a flurry of calls reporting a military convoy of troops headed from the El Toro base south on Interstate 5. Later Friday, El Toro base officials warned neighbors about increased jet noise, and military families across the region said they were expecting their loved ones to ship out by early next week.

Especially alarming to many families was the idea that U.S. troops might face chemical warfare.

“We’ve been trained to treat the soldiers and we have masks, but I believe what they (Iraq) have is a blistering agent that comes in a gas form, and it’s kind of like Medfly spray,” said a Navy corpsman, or medic, stationed at El Toro. “It blisters inside your lungs if you breathe it and on your face and mouth and skin if you come in contact with it. . . .

“I think I’d rather be shot,” she added.

A helicopter mechanic stationed at Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station said he was asked recently to update his will and other personnel records last week, and expects to leave for the Middle East next week. The mechanic said he had been through poison gas training in February.

“It’s just scary,” he said. “You walk through the chamber, you’re in there five minutes. It’s really bad.”

Nevertheless, he said, “it’s about time all these little countries quit taking advantage of us.” After a show of U.S. military strength, he added, “maybe we won’t have any more of these kidnapings.”

The Pentagon on Friday confirmed that troops from other areas of the country had begun to arrive in Saudi Arabia, but remained closed-mouthed about deployments from Southern California.

However, wire services quoting unnamed Bush Administration sources said about 4,000 Marines from the 7th Marine Amphibious Brigade at Twentynine Palms were on their way to the Middle East.

At the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, a 932-square-mile desert training facility in San Bernardino County, Staff Sgt. Dwaine Roberts said he could neither confirm nor deny reports of troop movements.

“All I can say is that for reasons of operational security, we cannot discuss alert postures, locations or possible deployment of units,” Roberts said.

However, about two dozen relatives of Marines had checked into the Best Western Garden hotel in Twentynine Palms by Friday night, said the hotel manager, Paul Parker.

“So far, all they’re saying is they probably will leave so they want to see them before they go,” Parker said. “Nobody’s been told for sure that they’re leaving out of this base.”

Headquartered at Twentynine Palms, the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is a specially trained group designed to “deploy in response to contingencies threatening U.S. vital interests.”

If called into action, the brigade would include air and ground forces from Camp Pendleton, El Toro, Tustin and Yuma, Ariz., and would link up with five supply ships. The ships are normally based on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, but are now en route to the Persian Gulf.

Unlike El Toro, however, Twentynine Palms would not normally accommodate huge military transport aircraft such as the C-5A, military experts said. But the base does have an 8,000-foot runway on its “expeditionary air field,” according to Twentynine Palms spokesman Lt. Ron Sharp. El Toro has several runways, ranging from 7,000 to 10,000 feet in length.

But according to one officer at El Toro, the Twentynine Palms airstrip is long enough to accommodate a C-5A or other military transport planes, such as the smaller, propeller-driven C-130.

The Pentagon said Air Force F-16s from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and C-130 transport planes from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., have begun arriving in Saudi Arabia.

The Navy also activated the hospital ships Mercy from Oakland, and the Navy ship Comfort, based in Baltimore, for deployment soon to the area. The ships are believed to carry medicine to treat exposure to chemical weapons.

Elements of the Army’s 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) by Friday night were on the road headed for Savannah, Ga., where they will begin boarding the Navy’s fast sea-lift ship Capella for deployment to Saudi Arabia.

Times staff writers Jim Newton and David Reyes and correspondent Len Hall contributed to this story.