U.S. Troops Head for Home; Pullout Will Take Months : Departures: Cheney says Pentagon will try to bring back 5,000 soldiers each day. Southland units are among those scheduled to return in the next week.

Jubilant in victory and even happier to be going home, American troops began leaving the Persian Gulf in large numbers Thursday, homesick and tired and dirty and many in need of a cold beer, seven months after the first of them assembled here to drive Saddam Hussein’s army out of Kuwait.

Soldiers of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, whose motto is “First to Fight,” were the first to depart, boarding an Air Force transport jet that thundered at dawn into an ashen sky, bound for Fort Stewart near Savannah, Ga.

“Good to go,” soldiers said, flashing grins and upturned thumbs.

Their division was among the first units sent to the desert last August after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Another 14,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines--including some Camp Pendleton and Twenty Nine Palms units--are scheduled to depart over the next week as the return of more than 500,000 American service personnel begins in earnest.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said the Pentagon would try to return an average of 5,000 GIs from the Persian Gulf each day over the next several weeks. “We’ve started the flow,” he said in an interview with a group of reporters. He cautioned, however, that some units as well as some individuals will remain in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and southern Iraq for months.

“We still have an awful lot of work to do over there,” Cheney declared. “I don’t want to create false expectations . . . that dad’s coming home tomorrow.”

He said thousands of U.S. troops will have to stay in the Persian Gulf area until a formal ceasefire is signed to assure that Iraq abides by the terms it has already agreed to. Thousands more will be needed to clean up the battlefield, repair vehicles, prepare supplies for shipment home and load gear.

Others, he said, will stay to help restore services to Kuwait and to assist in efforts to repair the environment.

On the list for first-out, the 24th Infantry Division was to be followed today by the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing, which came to Saudi Arabia on Aug. 8, six days after Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was expected to land at Langley Air Force Base, Va. Other units were to follow on Saturday.

In all 7,168 servicemen and women were expected to arrive home today and Saturday.

The lucky ones who headed back Thursday had only a few things in mind: the loved ones they missed so badly, the cold beer they would drink--alcohol is banned in Saudi Arbia--and the luxurious, steaming showers they would take when they got home-- home .

“I got so much dirt in my hair,” said a rifleman, “I could grow potatoes.”

As they slowly shuffled through pre-flight inspection lines at the Dhahran air base, still lugging their weapons, packs and other trappings of war, they looked for all the world like the steeled infantrymen they’d become. They even spoke like soldiers have always spoken after having witnessed combat.

“I hope I never have to go to another war again,” said Spec. 4 Paul Vanover, 24, of Oklahoma City. “I hope nobody does. I took a lot of pictures of dead people to remind me.”

But despite the somber nature of their mission and the pain that resulted, many said that going to war was not all hell.

Vanover, for one, recalled with fondness how he and his buddies passed the time before the shooting started by building elaborate sand castles and trying to ride the camels that roamed wild near their bivouac.

“Not too many camels in Oklahoma,” he pointed out.

Staff Sgt. Esteban Torres, 24, of Puerto Rico, said he would be disappointed that he will no longer see the “beautiful sky” that often burned glorious red and gold over the Saudi desert as the sun rose and set.

“You get some really good sky out there,” he said.

Lt. Rodney Font, 24, of Pensicola, Fla., said he would miss “the allure and mystery” of Arabia. “Whatever that means,” he added.

Several others said it would be the hospitable Saudis and Kuwaitis they had met whom they would miss most.

Indeed, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf dispatched a farewell message Thursday commending his departing troops for having respected “other religions, other cultures, other races and other nationalities’ while serving in what became Operation Desert Storm .

“While you served here,” Schwartzkopf said in a statement read to the soldiers, “you learned rather than criticized, and by learning you’ll take back to your homes knowledge little known about cultures that are thousands of years old. More importantly, you have left among those . . . cultures knowledge of what it means to deal with Americans.

“You have written history in the desert sands,” the general said, “that can never be blown away by the winds of time.”

The metaphor was not lost on the foot soldiers. “I’ll have my memories, and that’s good enough,” said Sgt. Frank China, 23, of Philadelphia. “I ain’t planning on coming back here for vacation.”

On their way, the troops from the 24th stopped briefly at Rhein Main Air Base in Germany, where they showered and rested.

“Thirty-six hours ago, these troops were still in their assembly areas hoping that the truce would hold and that the war was over,” Brig Gen. Terry Scott told the Associated Press. They were told “just yesterday,” he said, to pack up their gear.

“They’re a bit tired because it’s been a long way since Basra to get here.”

Spc. Keith West, 21, of Omaha Nebraska was firmly decided about what he would do when he finally reached home.

“I’m planning to spend about three days in a Holiday Inn,” he said, “and get the Iraqi dirt off me.”

Times staff Writers William J. Eaton and John M. Broder in Washington contributed to this story.