For 5,000 Troops, It’s the Day They Dreamed Of : Military: They are flying into bases across the country, the first contingents to come home. And they are returning to a rousing welcome from a grateful nation.

WASHINGTON —  It’s homecoming day for Operation Desert Storm.

The first 5,000 U.S. troops are due to roar in today to military bases across the country, where admirers have been hastily draping bunting, tuning tubas and practicing toasts for the biggest round of military welcome-back celebrations since World War II.

And the initial observances represent only the first installment of a ceremonial embrace that is likely to extend past July 4.

“They did a lot for us, and now we’re going to show some gratitude,” said Charles Page of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, which is helping prepare a welcome for troops stationed at Ft. Bliss, Tex.

About 14,500 U.S. troops are expected to arrive back in the United States by the end of the weekend. More will follow in a steady flow, although it will take several months for all the troops to be brought home.

The first Californians are scheduled to arrive at 2:15 p.m. PST on a Boeing 747 at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. The 420 Navy medical personnel--including active sailors and reservists--will be taken by bus to the Oakland Naval Hospital, where they will be greeted by marching bands and flag-waving relatives and friends.

All of the sailors were serving on the Mercy, a converted supertanker that has acted as a floating hospital in the Gulf. After the brief welcoming ceremony at the hospital, tentatively set for 4 p.m., the reservists will be put on commercial planes and sent to hometowns across the country.

“We want to get them back immediately,” said Navy spokesman Lonnie Brodie. “They will want to get back home.”

The Pentagon’s announcement that the arrivals would begin today and Saturday caught many base and community officials by surprise. As a result, some ceremonies will consist of little more than hugs and hand-lettered signs. But elsewhere, appreciative groups have quickly arranged for motorcades, song-and-dance shows and some lively parties.

In Twentynine Palms, Calif., the home base of more than 8,000 Marines deployed in the Persian Gulf, the town has swelled with pride and excitement as it prepares for the return of 300 of its own on Saturday.

The Marines are expected to arrive in two waves: One batch of 100 is scheduled to fly into Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino at 7:45 a.m. They will be put on military buses for the trip to Twentynine Palms, where they should arrive at 11 a.m. A second batch of 200 is set to land at Norton at 12:55 p.m., with arrival at the Marine base around 4 p.m.

“Wives are out grocery shopping and making all sorts of plans,” said Karen Vanden Hout, executive director of the local chamber of commerce. “A lot of them haven’t bought a full load of groceries since their husbands left.”

Women from the Assembly of God church rushed to tie more than 100 yellow bows on palm trees lining Adobe Road and Highway 62, the gritty desert town’s two main thoroughfares that crisscross downtown. Shop and restaurant owners painted their windows with “Welcome Home!” salutations, wiping clean the “Support Our Troops” displays that went up last August when the first Marines left town.

“Oh my God, my house is a mess!” exclaimed Barbara Lee, whose husband is attached to the 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which the Pentagon said has about 100 servicemen returning home Saturday. “I have so many things to do this weekend, if he comes home I will kill him!”

Stephen Varner, a retired Marine, and a handful of fellow Lions Club members packed their pick-up trucks with 175 flags on 10-foot poles. Early Saturday, the men will mount the flags along the five-mile stretch from downtown Twenty-nine Palms to the Marine base gate--the route the returning Marines will take on their way home.

“They will definitely notice the different attitude, the different feelings, the great support the country has for them,” said Varner, who made two tours in Vietnam. “It will be a lot different than what we had when we came back.”

Preparations were also under way at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, but a spokesman for the Marine base said that military officials are scrambling to determine which Marines are actually coming home and where they will be arriving.

The base would not release even tentative information about arriving troops, although the U.S. Central Command in Saudi Arabia listed 1,450 Marines from Camp Pendleton among those troops returning home this weekend.

The confusion, however, didn’t stop some wives from getting prepared anyway. Karyl Ketchum, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Dwight Ketchum, has been in the Persian Gulf since August, said she has a baby-sitter on hold for Saturday night--just in case.

What will they do their first night together? “Probably the obvious,” she said. “I know I don’t intend to come home.”

In what is being dubbed as an “old-fashioned grass-roots display of patriotism,” the city of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce will announce plans today for a homecoming parade on May 19 along the route of the Hollywood Christmas Parade. Jimmy Stewart and Bob Hope will serve as grand marshals of the procession, which will feature military and school bands, tanks, planes, helicopters and veterans groups.

“It is going to be big,” said Lily Lee, an aide to Mayor Tom Bradley. “I have gotten calls from groups as far away as Michigan.”

Phone lines to many bases across the country were busy all day Thursday as family members tried to discover whether their kin were returning in the first groups, and others scrambled to ready preparations for their arrival.

Today’s biggest crowd may be the 50,000 people expected to show up at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for the return of 1,040 members of the Air Force 1st Tactical Wing. The group will be met by Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice and Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill A. McPeak. The public will be able to take a look at some of the aircraft that won the war, including F-15 and F-16 fighter planes.

Among the 150 airmen expected to arrive is Air Force Lt. Steven Tate, who was the first pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft in the conflict.

Also likely to be well-attended is a reception for 250 members of the 11th Air Defense Artillery, based at Ft. Bliss, Tex. The group is due to arrive today at 4:51 p.m. CST.

The city of El Paso is planning an elaborate series of events for the returning troops, culminating in a July 4 parade along a section of Texas Route 54 that is going to be renamed “Patriot Highway” for the Scud-killing missiles that were tested in nearby White Sands, N.M.

A number of El Paso families also are arranging through the Chamber of Commerce to entertain groups of GIs and their families at their homes, to demonstrate their gratitude. Businesses in the area are handing out packages of discount coupons to the returning soldiers.

Ft. Riley, Kan., had to quickly redecorate a hangar to receive the 175 members of the 1st Infantry Division--”The Big Red One”--who are due to arrive today at 4:30 p.m. CST. The hangar, at nearby Marshall Army Airfield, was to be used Thursday night for a memorial service for the 18 members of the division who were killed in the war.

Times staff writers Dean E. Murphy in Los Angeles, Don Shannon in Washington and Tom Gorman in Oceanside contributed to this report.