Troops in Kuwait, at the Edge of War; Marines Find Time Is of the Essence Near Front Lines

As teenagers, Michael Belcher and Anthony M. Henderson walked thesame Washington-area streets and played sports for nearby highschools, Oxon Hill in Belcher's case and Bishop McNamara inHenderson's. Today, they find themselves together on less familiarground, leading a different type of team.

The two D.C.-area natives are the officers in charge of roughly1,000 troops of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. Based hereat the northernmost camp for U.S. forces in Kuwait, called LSA-7 forLife Support Area, their unit helps form what the military calls the"tip of the spear." Along with elements of the Army's 3rd InfantryDivision, the 7th Marines are expected to provide a big part of theinitial thrust into Iraq if a ground attack is ordered.

"We would be a lead unit," said Maj. Henderson, 36, thebattalion's executive officer. Most of his troops arrived in Kuwaitin the last week and were quickly shuttled to this remote desertcamp, about 45 miles north of Kuwait City. "We haven't been herelong, but being at the front means you get ready quick."

Less than a mile north of this sprawling tent city is a line inthe sand U.S. ground troops will cross if they get orders to invadeIraq. Beyond that boundary is no man's land -- terrain in plainsight of Iraqi reconnaissance forces just across the border on SafwanHill.

LSA-7 has grown from a company of just more than 100 soldiersabout 10 days ago to a cast of thousands. Some of the 7th Marineregiment, based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., is still on its way. When all the units are in place, the camp will house a regimentalcombat team of several thousand Marines, dozens of tanks andamphibious assault vehicles and an artillery battery.

Marines talk frequently of their proximity to the border and theimmediacy of the mission at hand. Weapons are loaded and training isconstant, with almost no down time. For safety, the routes, positionsand timing of perimeter patrols change daily.

Comforts are few. For the Marines' first 10 days here, there wasno electricity and no showers, and even now they can only be usedsporadically. There is still no facility for hot food; there are notelephones to call home; and there is no PX to buy personal supplies.The only exercise equipment is a wooden pull-up bar built by twoMarines from Lima Company, the first group to arrive in camp.

Reminders of the proximity of the frontline are everywhere. Twodays ago, a pair of mines were found on a regularly traveled roadleading from LSA-7 toward Camp Coyote, another Marine outpost. Everyfew hours fighter jets roar overhead toward the "no-fly" zone insouthern Iraq. Daily drills, sometimes unannounced, are conducted tosimulate chemical and biological strikes. And two M93A1 Fox vehicles,tasked with speeding just ahead of frontline troops to detect anyunconventional threat, are permanently stationed here.

At dusk, Marines guarding the perimeter in foxholes rimmed withsandbags and old tires feel as if "the whole world is behind you, andthe Iraqi army could come in from the front at any time," one lancecorporal said.

Conversations rarely extend beyond when an invasion might beordered. Last week, one Marine started a pool on when troops wouldcross the border. More than 50 of his fellow soldiers put down theirpredictions, which ranged from Friday until the end of March.

But while the commanders stress that the troops' bags arepermanently packed to "go north," the camp's infrastructure is stillunder construction. A makeshift combat operations center has just afew laptop computers and four phone lines, but those numbers willmore than double by the time the center is fully functional. Internet connections have not yet been established.

A new computer system that allows commanders to use sensorsmounted in combat vehicles to track the progress of their frontlineunits is not yet on line. The intelligence tent is stacked with unpacked boxes.

"For now, we get our intel off the radio," said Lance Cpl. ZacharyHall, 22, of Fort Worth, Tex., who works in the three-tent operationscenter.

Master Gunnery Sgt. Gus Black, the regimental operations chief,said the center should be completely ready in a matter of days.Black, 43, of St. Louis, has been here before. As part of a SpecialForces unit during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he pursued retreatingIraqis through northern Kuwait to Safwan Hill, before receiving acease-fire order. This time, he said, he hopes the Marines under hiscommand will "finish the job we started."

Training for that mission began in earnest Saturday, with thefirst live-fire exercises. The 3rd Battalion weapons company left ina convoy just before noon for a desert firing range 40 miles away.Mortar men practiced leaping from the back of jeeps to set up theirtubes and fire 81mm shells. Anti-armor teams shot TOW missiles atmakeshift targets that simulate tank movements.

Marines will spend the next 10 days shooting M-16s and .50-caliber machine guns, launching artillery and recalibrating thescopes on equipment that has been packed away on ships for months.

"We're going to bust a little rust off the weapons," said Belcher,41, a lieutenant colonel and the commanding officer of the 3rdBattalion.

After this deployment, he said, he hopes to return to Washington.He and Henderson, his deputy, frequented some of the same haunts offof Southern Avenue but never met until June, when Henderson joinedthe battalion at Twentynine Palms.

Henderson said his 13-year-old son, Andrue, is used to his fatherbeing away on deployments, but for his daughters, Daphnie and Carmen,4 and 1 respectively, this is "the first time daddy had to go away."

Belcher has no children , but said "I feel like I have 850 kidshere."