GIs Are Preparing to Leave Honduras
PALMEROLA AIR BASE, Honduras — Helicopters carrying tired U.S. troops swarmed back to this military base Sunday, and the soldiers prepared to return home.
“We accomplished what we came here to do--put the Nicaraguans back in their place,†Sgt. Matthew West, 21, of Dallas, said as he climbed out of a helicopter at the end of a flight from training exercises in Juticalpa, about 40 miles from the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.
Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Ft. Bragg, N.C., are expected to begin returning to the United States late this afternoon. They went to Honduras as part of a training exercise meant as a show of U.S. military strength in Central America.
Units of the 7th Light Infantry Division headquartered at Ft. Ord., Calif., also were flown here in the show of force. It was not immediately known when they will begin leaving.
President Reagan sent the 3,150 troops to Honduras after an estimated 2,000 Nicaraguan troops crossed into Honduras in pursuit of U.S.-backed rebels.
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