Calif. Guard Won’t Train in Honduras : Deukmejian Involved in Refusing Pentagon Invitation to Exercise

Gov. George Deukmejian and the commander of the California National Guard turned down a Pentagon invitation to send California guardsmen to Honduras for training, a Guard spokesman confirmed today.

Col. Don Foley, public affairs officer for the California Military Department, said the commanding general of the 25,000-member California National Guard, Adjutant Gen. Willard Shank, personally consulted with Deukmejian last November before turning down the invitation.

The governor’s office would neither confirm nor deny a Sacramento Bee report that Deukmejian made the decision to keep Californians out of the politically controversial “Big Pine III” training exercise next month in Honduras, but Foley said the governor was personally involved.

Not Able to Participate

“California was invited to take part in an exercise in Honduras,” Foley said. “The adjutant general did discuss that with the governor, and between the two of them, with other recommendations, it was determined that we would not be able to participate in that, and the Pentagon was so notified.”

Foley said one reason that California turned down the invitation to send several hundred guardsmen to participate in the 4,500-man multiforce training exercise in Honduras was that the California guard itself will be hosting a major training exercise in June at Camp Roberts.

That is a medical evacuation exercise called “Wounded Warrior II,” in which units from 11 state guards, plus regular Army and Army reserve units will simulate the medical evacuation of an infantry brigade.

“It’s a biggie, and we have been devoting ourselves to putting it together since last year. There’s a lot of time, effort and money going into that,” Foley said.

But he confirmed that other considerations were also discussed.

People Sent Abroad

“We routinely send cells of people to Europe or Korea (to train). That has been going on for years, and that does not call for a trip downtown to the governor’s office to talk about it,” Foley said.

But the invitation to send guardsmen to Honduras was “somewhat outside the norm” and Deukmejian was consulted because it “would have been a first, and with the rather obvious implications that are present as to how close are you to borders which might be considered a situation of increased readiness.”

The Texas National Guard accepted the Pentagon invitation to take the role offered California in the Honduras exercise, and is scheduled to send 450 guardsmen and 120 tanks, personnel carriers, jeeps, trucks and other vehicles to Honduras.

That has set off a political controversy in Texas, with anti-war groups and church leaders denouncing Gov. Mark White for agreeing to send Texas men into war games near the borders of El Salvador and Nicaragua.