Good Morning, Saudi Arabia

By JANICE C. SIMPSON.

The war in the gulf was barely a week old when the staff of the local morning TV show AM Los Angeles came up with the idea of mounting a salute to the troops in Saudi Arabia. But when the program put out a call for celebrities to participate in the tribute, the TV staff feared that the tight schedule would discourage stars from taking part. The producers need not have worried. Tom Selleck, M.C. Hammer and the entire cast of Roseanne signed up. So did Ben Vereen, who sang a spirited version of Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now and later joined country singer Lee Greenwood and Susan Anton for a heartfelt rendition of America the Beautiful. Said Vereen: "I want us as a country to realize our responsibility to the troops. I don't want Saddam Hussein to see us as divided."

Entertaining the troops has been a tradition among show-business folks ever since the USO first took performers overseas to perform for G.I.s during World War II. But the eagerness to participate has rarely been greater or more broad-based than it has been since Operation Desert Storm began. Energized by lingering guilt about the way Vietnam soldiers were treated, celebrities of all political stripes have been rushing to show support for allied forces in the gulf. Nearly 100 actors, singers and athletes, ranging from Meryl Streep to Mike Tyson, got together to record Voices That Care, a pro-troop music video that made its debut last week on armed-forces television. "This isn't pro-war or antiwar," said songwriter Linda Thompson Jenner, who initiated the program and wrote the lyrics. "There are people involved in this project who stand firmly on both sides, but this is an apolitical message to tell the troops we're thinking of them." Profits from the sale of the video and audio track in the U.S. will be donated to the American Red Cross and the USO.

Satellite dishes, VCRs and other technology help make it possible for the men and women in the gulf to receive this outpouring of entertainment. More than 85% of U.S. soldiers stationed in the region have access to radios, compared with just 50% during the Vietnam War. Some 3,000 television sets are also available to the troops, and more are on the way. Five major companies, % including ARCO and AT&T, each donated $500,000 to a USO fund that will spend some of the money to build mobile entertainment centers for the troops. Dubbed the USOasis, these vehicles contain large-screen TVs, VCRs, stereo systems, and cellular phones, so that soldiers can call home. The final touch: popcorn machines.

Troops in the gulf can tune in 24 hours a day to the U.S. military network, which is broadcasting the most comprehensive schedule of programming ever provided for fighting forces. In a region where a night of R. and R. means downing a couple of cans of nonalcoholic beer and practicing the steps to a new Marine-invented dance, the "Gas Mask Rag," the outside diversion is welcomed. "It is very important to keep up morale in the midst of such a lonely and isolating experience as a war in a desert," says Army Lieut. Colonel Robert Dawson, deputy director of the military broadcasting center in Los Angeles, which gathers the bulk of its programming from U.S. radio and TV stations. The armed forces usually pay a small fee for entertainment, but scores of producers and show-biz executives are donating their programs. Both the Super Bowl and last week's Grammy Awards were beamed in live. Taped segments of Los Angeles Laker games, boxing and wrestling matches, and favorites like The Arsenio Hall Show have also been shown. Disney even paid for a musical special, headlined by singer Greenwood, whose patriotic anthem God Bless the USA is one of the songs most requested by the troops.

Saudi Arabians can eavesdrop on armed-forces radio but not on the military's closed-circuit TV signals. Even so, all tapes and transmissions coming into the country are monitored to avoid offending the sensibilities of the Saudi hosts. That rules out programs containing make-out scenes, women wearing tight or revealing clothing and displays of religious icons. Some soldiers were concerned that the restrictions might cause the censorship of Cher's Video Canteen, a two-hour special of music videos hosted by the actress, whose scanty costumes are her trademark. Programmers for the VH-1 cable network, which sponsored the show, did exclude some videos from the program, including all by Madonna, but Cher passed muster by wearing jeans and a jacket. When Bob Hope staged his Christmas show for the troops, the Saudis passed the word that they weren't happy about his female troupers and that only women accompanied by their husbands were welcome in the kingdom. Thus the only woman on the tour was Hope's wife Dolores.

For shows broadcast live from the U.S., the biggest problem is the time difference of eight to 11 hours, which means that many sports events must be taped in the middle of the night and watched later. Even so, the young men and women in the gulf are grateful for such diversions and the good intentions behind them. "It brings a bit of home to you," says Francis Gitro, 47, a chief warrant officer from Rochester. And that explains why, even though the troops enjoy star-studded extravaganzas from Hollywood, the most popular TV show of all is a videotape of loved ones back home.

With reporting by Sally Donnelly/Los Angeles and Lara Marlowe/Dhahran