Soldier’s Mother Gets a Call on Home Front : GI: A military policeman from Anaheim phones home to describe his wonder and fear in Saudi desert. He’s ‘ready to go’ in ground action he expects soon.

ANAHEIM —  Before war broke out in the Persian Gulf, Gary Bodenweiser used to sit in his Saudi Arabian desert foxhole watching red flares light up the night sky, wondering what it would be like if the flashes of light were to come from real explosives.

“It’s kinda scary because they say that’s the first thing you see during a nuclear explosion,” the member of the Military Police wrote to his mother earlier this month. “Flash, bang, shock wave . . . falling debris and last, but not least, the radiation. So you can imagine it starts my heart pumping.”

Early Tuesday morning, the telephone rang in Barbara Bodenweiser’s Anaheim apartment and on the other end was her son’s excited voice, describing a frightening desert lightning storm mixed with air traffic.

“He was scared to death,” Barbara Bodenweiser said. “He didn’t know whether it was the missiles or the lightning. He told me, ‘Are you watching CNN? It’s exactly like what you are seeing on TV.’

“He says he doesn’t have to see it on TV, he’s seeing it right there.”

Bodenweiser’s account is one of only a few that has trickled back to anxious Orange County families with loved ones in the Persian Gulf since the fighting began last week. Others have been informed that the war could delay even more the precious cards and letters that sometimes were taking weeks to reach families back home.

With two televisions tuned to the Cable News Network, Barbara Bodenweiser sat by the front window of her apartment describing the 4 a.m. telephone call from her son. While she talked, she sometimes referred to notes she jotted on a yellow piece of paper so that she wouldn’t forget the substance of the conversation.

“I was flabbergasted when he called,” she said. “I knew it was him right away. I hadn’t heard from him since Jan. 6.”

She said her son sounded “exuberant” at times and was “really anxious to get it over with.” Later that morning, she said, her son telephoned his sister and the sister reported him to be in equally good spirits and could hear laughing in the background.

“Can you believe that?” the soldier’s mother asked.

She said her son told her of 21-hour work days, but he could not tell her about his assignment or his location in the Saudi desert. He also could not provide an answer to his mother’s question about when he could be seeing action with ground forces.

“ ‘It’s coming soon, Mom,’ ” was her son’s brief response, she said. “He said he was prepared. He is ready to go. He’s glad it’s started. Maybe they can get it over with.”