Los Alamitos Marine Unit Gets the Word : Military: The company commander says he’s not going to speculate or worry about Friday’s call-up until he mows the lawn and does other chores.

LOS ALAMITOS —  Hours after being told that his Marine reserve unit would be called to active duty, Capt. Kenneth Hicks didn’t have time to be concerned with the possibility that his infantry company might be sent to a desert face-off with Iraqi troops.

“I’ve got to mow the lawn, do the food shopping, do the wash and go for a run,” the Fullerton lawyer said Friday. “Running helps relieve the stress from the office.”

Hicks’ Los Alamitos unit, the 124 men and one woman of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, was called to active duty Friday, the latest in a series of large Orange County reserve deployments for service in Operation Desert Shield. The company is scheduled to report for duty Dec. 9.

“I’m not going to speculate about anything,” the company commander said. “I’m a Marine. I just do the job they tell me to do.”

Company D was one of eight units and sub-units of the 23rd Marines, stretching from California to Utah, to receive the call Friday.

“These are combat troops,” said Capt. Warren Driggers in Los Alamitos. “We don’t drive trucks or fly in airplanes. We fight on the ground.

“It all seems to be in support of the President’s decision not to rotate forces out of the Persian Gulf. It doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to war--I hope not.”

Capt. Ron Corbin, based at 2nd Battalion Headquarters in Encino, said the reserves notified Friday were not surprised. “They have been briefed for the past couple of months about getting their personal affairs in order. But it does hit home when the call comes.”

The personal effect on soldiers called to active duty and their families was also discussed Friday by President Bush, who was asked during a White House news conference if he would consider sacrificing one of his own children in a possible Persian Gulf conflict.

“You ought to read my mail,” Bush responded. “It is . . . so heart-moving. Supportive, and yet, ‘Please bring my kid home, please bring my husband home.’. . . And I will do my level best to bring those kids home without one single shot fired in anger. And if a shot is fired in anger, I want to guarantee each person that their kid whose life is in harm’s way will have the maximum support, will have the best chance to come home alive, and will be backed up to the hilt.”

Kathy Collier of Buena Park, whose son, Darrin, 24, is a soldier serving in the Persian Gulf, said the President’s response “really got down to earth and hit home to us.”

“I think he is very sensitive to the American families across the nation that have been touched by this,” said Collier, who runs a support group for families with children or spouses in the military. “I could feel his sensitivity as he was speaking.”

But another parent, Lucille Rohnert of San Clemente, whose son, Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Keith L. Rohnert, was until Thursday stationed aboard the destroyer Spruance in the Persian Gulf, said she had “mixed emotions” about Bush’s statement and his decision to deploy more troops.

“I feel the whole thing is not necessary,” Rohnert said. “All I can think of, regardless of what (Bush) says, is how many will be coming back in the (body) bag, and how many will be left crippled and disabled the rest of their lives.”

Capt. Corbin said some of the reserves notified Friday expressed concern about leaving their families for periods of time that could range from six months to a year.

“The concerns are the same, pretty much,” Corbin said. “They want to know how their wives can use the medical facilities on base. Some say, ‘What about my car?’ But all these guys have been training as infantrymen since they came in.”

Hicks, married and the father of two children ages 7 and 10, said he had been expecting the call and will leave his solo law practice in the hands of two other area attorneys. In preparing his children, Hicks said: “They know what I do one weekend a month. I try not to scare them. They know that I’ll be gone for a little while.”

After processing at Los Alamitos, Corbin said the Los Alamitos company, whose members range in age from 18 to Hicks’ 42 years, will be assigned to Camp Pendleton for training. Further orders were not available Friday.

“I wouldn’t even speculate on what’s going to happen,” Corbin said. Although calls were going out to individual reservists Friday, some may not actually get official word until today, when the company reports for its regular monthly drill at Los Alamitos.

Driggers said the drill had been scheduled for some time and was not part of the company’s mobilization, which comes in the wake of activation orders sent to 200 reservists in a Marine helicopter squadron based at El Toro. Another 150 Santa Ana-based Army medical reservists were recently put on alert status to await the call for active duty.