First 800 of GIs in Honduras Leave for Home

Eight hundred of the 3,200 U.S. soldiers sent to Honduras in a show of force against Nicaragua departed today, yelling, whistling and cheering as they left.

The 1st Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Army Airborne Division boarded seven C-141 jet transport carriers for the five-hour trip back to Ft. Bragg, N.C., where they planned to land the airborne way--by parachute.

“This is nice, it’s beautiful,” said Sgt. Elliott Cook, 22, of Miami, when he saw the planes to carry him and his fellow soldiers home. “I am happy to go home because nothing happened.”

‘Too Much Poverty’

“I don’t want to come back here--there’s too much poverty,” said Spec. Judson Garret, 22, of Diamond Bar, Calif. “I think . . . the people who are protesting (the deployment) back in the States . . . would really protest if they came down here and saw how people live.”

The 2nd Battalion of the 27th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division from Ft. Ord, Calif., was scheduled to leave later in the day. The rest of the troops are to depart Tuesday.

Many of the departing soldiers said they were happy to leave the tropical heat and tedium of their brief stay in Honduras. They boarded the C-141s whistling, cheering and screaming “Home sweet home, here I come!”

Lenient Leave Ahead

The soldiers leaving today had ended training assignments Saturday at bases in Jamastran and Tamara and flew to Palmerola Air Base, 35 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa, for the flights home.

A military spokesman said the troops would receive “lenient leave time” after arriving home.

President Reagan ordered the 3,200 troops to Honduras on March 16 as a muscle-flexing exercise after Nicaraguan troops reportedly crossed the border into Honduras in pursuit of U.S.-backed Contra rebels.

Nicaragua denied the reported incursion.

U.S. officials have said the troops are taking back all the equipment they brought with them, including tanks and aircraft.

The U.S. troops never saw action, but Honduran President Jose Azcona Hoyo said all along he expected them to back him up if the Sandinistas didn’t withdraw. By late last week, Honduran officials said the Nicaraguan troops were back on their own side of the border.