These are the jobs that hundreds of sailors from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach will assume this fall at Kuwait's largest port on the Persian Gulf.

During a tour of the operations this week, Lt. Cmdr. Mike Jaeger, a spokesman for Naval Coastal Warfare Group One, announced that his sailors will be replaced by those from coastal warfare's Group Two, from Little Creek.

The harbor defense effort here is a continuation of the intense maritime protection afforded to cargo ships carrying military equipment to and from the war in Iraq.

Without a working deepwater port in Iraq, American military commanders count on fresh supplies from hundreds of truck convoys a day that begin and end at this port.

Fifty-four sailors from Group One, based in San Diego, have been deployed here since November. Today, they live at Camp Spearhead in this port. But the Kuwaitis have asked for the space at their port back, so the sailors are expected to relocate about half an hour away, to Kuwaiti Naval Base.

Last month's attack on the nearby Iraqi offshore oil platforms heightened concerns over security.

"Clearly, we didn't think there was going to be a problem at the terminals," Jaeger said. "The threat always exists, but we're more ready for it today."

Though Kuwait has not experienced the same level of attacks on coalition forces as Iraq, the country has not been completely free of incidents. Four U.S. soldiers were slightly injured in December after their truck convoys came under fire in two separate attacks in Kuwait.

Earlier, one American civil contractor was killed and another injured when they were shot near Camp Doha, once the main U.S. military base in Kuwait.

In recent weeks, commanders have canceled trips to shopping malls and other local sites for troops based at American military camps in Kuwait.

Defense Daily reported this week that the foiled suicide attack against Iraqi oil terminals prompted the Navy to shore up defenses around Al Basrah and Khawr Al Amaya.

According to the publication, Navy officials will send over a new missile-defense system, unmanned surface vehicles, unmanned jet skis with specialized sensors and new radars. Additionally, Navy officials will ship over protective gear for those personnel, principally the Marines, now guarding the oil platforms.

Jaeger said that he could not comment on the reported build up of defensive equipment in and around the terminals.

There is a restricted area for commercial traffic trying to enter the port, but Jaeger declined to release its dimensions for security reasons.

After the attacks, his forces dialed up to a higher state of alert. Their weaponry includes shotguns, grenade launchers and .50- caliber machine guns mounted on Navy and Coast Guard patrol crafts that zip around the piers and escort Military Sealift cargo ships.

"We've just had a lot more boats on the water," Petty Office 1st Class Jeffrey Forbes, 33, a gunner on a 27-foot patrol craft assigned from the Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit based in Alameda, Calif.

In addition, the Marines will turn over their security jobs on the oil platforms to sailors from Guam and San Diego in the next two to three months, Jaeger said. But it was still unclear, he said, whether sailors based in Hampton Roads would also be stationed there.

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