For Some Marines, Deaths of Comrades Fuel Doubts

By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

OCEANSIDE, Calif., Dec. 2 - Half a world away and a day later, the deadly blast of a roadside bomb in Falluja stopped young marines in their tracks here on Friday.

This latest improvised explosive device - the military's bloodless jargon for every soldier and marine's worst fear, the death you don't see coming - claimed the lives of 10 marines and wounded 11 more, the worst attack on American troops in four months.

Families were still being notified, so word had scarcely begun to spread in Oceanside, on the doorstep of Camp Pendleton, or in Jacksonville, N.C., home to Camp Lejeune, the two bases that military officials hinted would bear the brunt of the mourning.