Ft. Ord Welcomes Returning Soldiers

The first batch of U.S. soldiers returning from Honduras, 160 men of the 7th Light Infantry Division, arrived in several buses at 2 a.m. Tuesday, but their 50 wives and children were forced to wait about 50 yards away while the troops unpacked their gear.

Twenty minutes later, the tired soldiers were ordered to march down a sidewalk in front of their loved ones and near some of the hundreds of yellow ribbons placed throughout the sprawling military base about 90 miles south of San Francisco.

After a short speech by their company commander, Capt. Steve Gady, the soldiers were finally released, unleashing a flurry of kisses and hugs.

More GIs were scheduled for return later Tuesday, with both battalions totaling about 1,200 troops scheduled to be back home by today.

Other Troops Also Return

The other 2,000 troops who took part in the 11-day show of force against reported Nicaraguan incursions into Honduras belong to the 82nd Airborne Division and were returning to their base at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

The order to deploy troops to Honduras came suddenly, but members of the 7th Light Infantry feel they responded quickly.

“I think we did an outstanding job as far as deploying and getting down there,” Pvt. Keary Henkle said as his wife, Candy, stood at his side. Henkle, like most of the other men, still wore combat face paint designed to conceal them in the jungle.

Henkle, noting that it took two days to return to Ft. Ord, quipped, “I wish we could redeploy as fast as we deploy.”