March 30, 1984

U.S. reconnaissance planes are providing almost instant intelligence on rebel movements before and during combat operations, according to the commander of Salvadoran forces battling insurgents in the eastern part of the country. Washington has said the reconnaissance missions were stepped up to look for rebels who might try to disrupt the country's elections. (Page A1, Column 1.) Iraq has used nerve gas in its war with Iran and is nearing completion of up to five extensive sites for the mass production of the lethal chemical warfare agent, according to United States intelligence officials. They said they had obtained what they believe to be incontrovertible evidence of the findings. (A1:2.)

Army officials said today that about 50 of the achievement medals went to personnel who got no closer to the fighting than the Pentagon. Other awards were given to staff and rear-area support troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the 82d Airborne Division; at Fort Stewart, Ga., and Fort Lewis, Wash., bases for Army Rangers; and the headquarters of the Army's Forces Command in Atlanta. Asked for an explanation, the Army defended its awards system as a ''valuable and effective leadership tool to build unit morale and esprit.''

The Marathon Oil Company and Husky Oil Ltd. of Canada announced yesterday that they had reached a definitive agreement for Marathon to buy Husky's United States subsidiary, the Husky Oil Company, for $505 million in cash. Since Marathon Oil is a wholly owned subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the step would further increase U.S. Steel's holdings in the oil business. S. R. Blair, chairman of the board of Husky Oil Ltd., said in an interview that the company was making the sale ''because we perceived on opportunity this year to convert our petroleum properties, which were not contributing much to our income, into cash.''

At least 60 people were killed and hundreds injured by a string of tornadoes that roared through the small towns and greening countryside of the Carolinas Wednesday night. The gigantic storm system swept on up the coast today, with gales that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and tides that scoured beaches and flooded seaside towns. The National Weather Service called it ''one of the most severe general cyclonic storms in recent history.'' The highest death toll was reported in North Carolina, where at least 44 bodies had been recovered by late today. The authorities said more than 420 people had been injured and 600 were homeless in a dozen eastern counties.

The East's biggest storm of the year battered the metropolitan area with snow, sleet, hail and hurricane-force winds yesterday, disrupting travel, commerce, education and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The storm caused widespread flooding, howling up the coast with winds up to 80 miles an hour and 20-foot waves that pounded sea walls like thunder. Beaches and shoreline property were heavily damaged and emergencies were declared in New York City, Atlantic City and New Jersey shore areas. Many Homes Without Power The storm knocked out power to more than 196,000 metropolitan-area homes, closed schools and businesses, forced the evacuation of thousands of residents along the shores of Brooklyn, New Jersey and Connecticut, turned highways treacherous and threw regional transportation into turmoil. ''In terms of property damage, lives lost and the area covered, this is the worst storm to strike the East this year,'' said Gene Salerno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Rockefeller Center.