War may have been expected, but the first missiles to hit Baghdad still delivered a shock in homes and public places in Orange County.

More than 40 cruise missiles were fired at Iraq during the initial strike. The San Diego-based destroyer USS Milius participated in the attack, using missiles it had picked up at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

The start brought relief - at last, the waiting was over. But it created new concerns, too: Will the troops make it home safely? Will Iraqi civilians be spared? Will terrorists wage war on our home front?

Sadie Barnes noticed the TV had gone quiet Wednesday evening, so she got up from a late dinner with her best friend to see why. Then her hand went to the silver half-heart pendant at her neck.

"I shouted, 'Oh my God, we're bombing,'." she said.

Barnes had expected this moment since her husband, Marine Sgt. Jason Barnes, 23, shipped out Jan. 17. But now it was real.

"Oh, my heart is breaking," she said. "My husband's right there."

The friend offering comfort was Jessica Blushi, whose husband Brian, 23, is a Marine corporal in the same company as Barnes. Both men are TOW anti-tank gunners.

"When it happened, even though we'd expected it for hours - for weeks - it still was a total shock to us," Blushi said.

The women, best friends since they were fourth-graders in Orange, sat together in silence through President George W. Bush's address to the nation.

"We listened to him tell us how our husbands would be home soon," she said. "It was like he was talking to us directly. We just sat there another five minutes after he was done, talking and crying and hugging each other."

Intermittently, Blushi's hands would go to her husband's extra dogtag, which hangs from her neck. And Barnes's hand would go the half-heart pendant, whose other half hangs around her husband's neck.

"Make sure," said Blushi, "that you say we're the two proudest wives aboard Camp Pendleton."

Worshipers at Fountain Valley United Methodist Church had just finished a round of prayer for peace when Bill Dennler entered the sanctuary and delivered the news: "Cruise missiles hit a building in Baghdad - we're at war," he told them.

They huddled in a circle and prayed for a quick end to the war and few casualties. Jean Martin, whose son is in the Air Force, said softly: "This could be a lesson for a lot of countries, and a lesson for us, too."

Diane Jardine Bruce, rector of St. Clement's By-the-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente, fielded six calls from anguished parishioners in the first half-hour after the start of war.

"They're concerned. Some are heartbroken. They want to make sure families are taken care of. Some are scared," she said.
The parish, whose members range from families of Camp Pendleton Marines to peace advocates eager to avert war, would come together now to help local military families and pray for a quick, bloodless end to the conflict, Bruce said.

Frank Cipriani tended bar at the American Legion Hall in Santa Ana, where a handful of veterans were watching CNN while a swing band practiced in the next room. A Marine corporal in Vietnam, Cipriani was glad to see the United States take action.

"I think what they should have done last time was kick his (butt)," said Cipriani, 55.

Outside South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, about 75 anti-war protesters gathered at 5 p.m. - the deadline set by Bush for Saddam to step down or face war.

Some held candles, and their signs carried slogans like "Stop Bush," "Wake up America" and "No War."

Linda Everett, 46, of Costa Mesa, said she didn't see any possible good coming from a war.

"I'm 100 percent in support of our troops," she said. "Get them out of there and get them home. I don't want anybody to die."

Near the end of the protest, a Costa Mesa man allegedly assaulted two protesters when he nearly struck them with his Ford Expedition and then got out of his car to scream at them. David Hobbs, 31, was cited and released.

For many gulf war veterans in Orange County, the visions of Baghdad under bombardment at night brought back a flood of emotions from the war they fought with Iraq more than a decade ago.

Toby Echelberry recalled the emotional highs of working as an Army intelligence officer 12 years ago, when Iraqi scud missiles threatened his outfit in Saudi Arabia.

"Part of me feels like I should be there, like they're finishing something I started," said Echelberry, now a Lake Forest accountant. "Part of me misses what I went through, the adrenaline."

The first gulf war cost Brett Doggett of Orange his left foot. The battlefield carnage he saw and felt still haunts him.

"There's no reason to be doing this," he said of Wednesday's attack.

"I'm sure the soldiers there are all terrified and, as they cross the border and get deeper and deeper into enemy territory, it only gets to be more so, especially when you're being shot at.

"My words for the guys there are: Take care of yourself and watch out," Doggett said.

Pilar Diaz of Placentia watched the war begin at home with her family. She believes that Saddam must be removed, though she is sad for the troops and their families and worries about what this war might produce.

"This isn't a conventional war where it's one-on-one combat with rifles," said Diaz, a mother of four. "I'm more fearful that we might be attacked with biochemical weapons or any of the other types of warfare that exist today. I think the whole nation is alarmed because they know that this war isn't like past wars."

For many Muslims in Orange County, the war brought a mix of fears - that civilians will not suffer, that members of their own faith will not be attacked here in the United States.

"You just simply hope there will be no civilian casualties," said Mohannad Malas, 48, a Laguna Beach resident of Palestinian descent.

As Saddam appeared on Iraqi television a few hours after the initial attack, some local Iraqis said they didn't believe it was actually him.

"It's Halloween in Iraq tonight," said Hasnik Alnajafi of Tustin, joking that it was probably one of the look-alikes Saddam is believed to employ for certain public appearances.

Register staff writers Tom Berg, Yvette Cabrera, Jim Hinch, John Gittelsohn, Vik Jolly, Ann Pepper, Jim Radcliffe, Zaheera Wahid, Theresa Walker, Martin Wisckol and Joel Zlotnik contributed to this report.