There <i> will </i> be morale in the Persian Gulf, thanks to South Bay patriots.

By SHAWN HUBLER

Sept. 30, 1990 12 AM PT

As the general said Wednesday to the U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf, “There will be morale.”

And if not, it won’t be for lack of trying from the folks back home in the South Bay.

From videos and letters for U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia to button sales and yellow ribbons for the hostages in Iraq and Kuwait, local patriots have launched a host of programs aimed at boosting the spirits of Americans in the Middle East.

“Those people need a lot of support,” said Mike Leonzo of Redondo Beach, an elder in the Oceanside Christian Fellowship, which has mailed 75 letters to U.S. troops on the front lines. “We have a friend there now in the 82nd Airborne, and this is the second Christmas he won’t be home--he was (deployed with troops) in Panama last year.”

Leonzo’s church is not scribbling alone.

The Sand Debs, a girls club affiliated with the philanthropic Sandpipers organization, has also launched a letter-writing campaign to service people in the Middle East.

And in Torrance, a group of students at North High School is offering higher-tech greetings: Anyone with relatives or friends stationed in the Middle East is invited to come to the school Nov. 3 and tape a free 10-minute videogram.

Jerry Smith, student activities director at the school, said the idea was dreamed up by teacher Gary Parton and the 13 students in his video production class.

“They ran across the idea out of a newscast and thought we could provide the service here,” Smith said.

Anyone interested should call the class at 533-4426 during school hours and make a reservation for Nov. 3, when the taping will be done, Smith said. Participants will have a choice of three backgrounds--one with a Christmas tree, another with a huge package and a third with an outdoor scene--and will be allowed 10 minutes of recording time.

The taping will be done by student technicians on videotapes paid for by Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance, the school’s partner in the Adopt A School program, Smith said. Participants will get the finished tape that day along with mailing instructions.

So far, Smith said, only about a half-dozen inquiries have come in, but the class hasn’t really advertised the program. It plans to distribute flyers in coming weeks.

Meanwhile, lest the hostages be forgotten, a group of employees at TRW’s Space & Defense Sector in Redondo Beach have tied a big, fat yellow ribbon on a tree near the company cafeteria.

According to the company, electronics technician Jerry Trager came up with the idea and suggested it to TRW’s Veterans Committee.

“This is a simple gesture not only to acknowledge our military troops, but also the American civilians who are being held there,” Trager said.

The ribbon has been up since last Friday as “a kind of quiet reminder and a positive ray of hope for employees who have relatives or friends involved in the crisis,” said Bob Neale of the veterans group.

And elsewhere in Redondo Beach, housewife Terri Clune has yet another project in the hopper.

Enraged and frustrated by developments in the Persian Gulf, she has contacted Coming Home, an Illinois-based nonprofit group set up for the families of the hostages, and is lining up volunteers and pledges for a plan to sell buttons to benefit the stricken families of “guests” in Iraq and Kuwait.

“I was watching the news one day, and they showed a bunch of people in a bar wearing yellow ribbons,” Clune said. “It seemed like they were just using it as an excuse to party.”

Resolving to do something “more personal,” Clune and her husband at first donned homemade buttons demanding the return of the hostages because “We’re Saddam Disgusted!” Then, on the Oprah Winfrey Show, she heard about Coming Home, a Champaign, Ill., group recently founded by a former hostage in Iraq.

Jean Belt, spokeswoman for Coming Home, said Clune is the first Californian to volunteer to help the organization, which maintains a communications network for the families of people detained in Iraq and Kuwait.

In the short time since it was launched, Belt said, Coming Home has collected about $2,000 through donations and sales of buttons that say: “Coming Home. Help Bring Americans Home From Iraq and Kuwait.”

In addition to passing along messages and news culled from interviews with those who have escaped or been released, the group offers solace and counseling to hostages’ families, sets up support groups and helps finance trips home for former detainees who are stranded in other countries.

Clune said she is still processing the paperwork necessary to launch an arm of Coming Home in Redondo Beach, but would be glad to hear from anyone willing to help her. Buttons are offered in exchange for a donation. Clune can be reached at 378-8608.

And for anyone who doubts that morale can be boosted by projects such as these, there is this week’s letter to the Oceanside Christian Fellowship from Marine Cpl. Richard (Rico) Lopez, 22, of Santa Barbara. Lopez, who has been camped in Saudi Arabia for the past month, received one of those 75 letters the congregation mailed out and responded with a thank-you note.

“I think it is great that my fellow Americans and Christian brothers and sisters are taking time to let the services know that they have the country’s support and prayers,” Lopez wrote.

“I was deeply touched by the amount of mail that flowed in to ‘any service member.’ I wanted to answer them all.”