QASIM AIR BASE, Pakistan — Imagine watching a movie in your living room while your house is rebuilt around you.

That loosely describes the cavernous hangar where more than 400 U.S. helicopter crew members, including 60 soldiers from Hawai'i, live while providing earthquake relief in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

The hangar's floor plan has been a work in progress since U.S. helicopters out of Afghanistan started flying missions on Oct. 10 — two days after the 7.6-magnitude quake hit.

Sgt. John Hilmes, 30, sat on one of several plaid-patterned couches arrayed around a 42-inch plasma TV while a yellow forklift moved about behind him delivering crates of tents.

"It's good to take a break," said Hilmes, an Oklahoma man who's with the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. "I'm sure this will be moved around."

He was right, and the "living room" moved at least twice more in the next couple of days.

Home for the next several weeks or months is inside this hangar, about the size of two side-by-side football fields. Next to it sit more than a dozen brown-and-tan camouflage Russian-made Mi-17 Pakistani Army helicopters.

Qasim Air Base is in smoggy Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital of Islamabad and about 70 miles south of the epicenter of the earthquake.

The temporary basing in the Muslim country — which has been a key ally but also has al-Qaida in the hills and harbors split feelings about Americans — also has meant the need for cultural sensitivity among U.S. troops.

"The big thing here, don't go wandering off, looking at their helicopters," Sgt. 1st Class Jesse Vielma out of Fort Hood, the "mayor" of the hangar, warned recently arriving soldiers.

With U.S. troops largely confined to the hangar and immediate vicinity, where they could smoke and just be outside in the 70- and 80-degree weather, interaction with Pakistani soldiers was kept to a minimum.

"Females, no shorts. Long pants (only). You can't wear shorts," Vielma also told the new arrivals.

To show respect for Ramadan fasting, the U.S. crews, including soldiers out of Hawai'i, Germany, Texas and Kansas, as well as U.S. Navy and British air crews, were advised not to eat or drink outside the hangar.

U.S. military aid to Pakistan has been increasing, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to discuss earthquake support and assure him of long-term U.S. support.

Rear Adm. Mike LeFever, commander of the U.S. disaster assistance center at Chaklala Air Base, echoed that stand and said the U.S. military would not cut back its deployment of helicopters during the winter, The Associated Press reported.

About 29 American choppers were in action, mostly heavy-lifting Chinooks. Four of them are from B Company, 214th Aviation, the "Hillclimbers" out of Wheeler Army Airfield. The Hawai'i choppers started flying daily relief missions last Friday.

"We are not going to diminish our helicopter support. This is long-term support," the AP quoted LeFever as saying. "We are going to be standing by our friends, and we expect the other international communities to be able to do that."

By midweek, there were 34 20-man tents set up in the hangar with the Task Force Quake contingent expected to grow to 600 to 700 with 12 Chinooks coming from Kansas, five from Texas and four from Hawai'i among the total.

Dozens of Pakistani, U.S. and British helicopters fired up their engines every morning, the rotor winds sometimes blowing mini tornados of dust across the hangar apron, as they took off for nearby Chaklala Air Base to be loaded up with relief supplies.

Vielma said he wasn't sure how long the U.S. troops would be temporarily based out of Qasim.

"We don't know. That's a question we don't like to ask because we might not like the answer," he said.

With the troops living in close quarters, health is an issue. About 20 Navy air crew members developed strep, probably as a result of transporting refugees from the mountains. There were 70 cases of upper respiratory infections in the first week of relief efforts.

Improvements were being made every day at Qasim. Two 500-gallon water tanks for showers that ran out midday were doubled to four, and a well was tapped soon after.

Three tents with big plasma-screen TVs were in the works "because the colonel (the Task Force Quake commander) is a big football fan, and he wants to see three different football games on Sundays," Vielma said.

Sgt. Takema Randolph, 24, who works in communications with Hawai'i's Hillclimbers, said, "I think it's nice. They made comfortable living arrangements for us."

She likes the Pakistani food served up in a small dining facility next to the hangar that was also expected to double in size.

"We're in a different environment, a different culture and we get to experience what they eat," said Randolph, who like most of the other Hawai'i soldiers, got back from a year in Afghanistan in the spring.

The unit is deploying next year to Iraq.

On the downside, "This base (Qasim) is really small and it's really far away from home," said Randolph, who was with her husband in Afghanistan, but now is separated from him.

She had not been out on a relief flight, but was hoping to be able to do so.

"It's just like Hurricane Katrina. Nobody knew it was going to happen, but it's nice that everybody's pulling together here, not just the Americans," she said. "You can see we're helping people. You can see right away the difference that you are making. So, I think this is a nice deployment.

"This is something I'll never forget."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.