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South America
On March 17, 1988, Operation Golden Pheasant began in response
to Sandinistic threats to the borders of Honduras. Units of the
7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) along with conventional
forces from XVIII Airborne Corps conducted an emergency
deployment to Honduras in response to Nicaraguan attacks
(Operation Danto) on
Contra camps and supply caches in Honduras. The "show of force" deployment ended on March 28,
1988.
Map Central America, CIA, 2011
The no-notice deployment was in response to
Nicaraguan insurgents operating in Honduras. The emergency
deployment readiness exercise known as Operation GOLDEN PHEASANT
was composed of members of the 7th Special Forces Group, 504th
Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and two
battations of 7th Infantry Division, and
Alpha Company, 313th MI Battalion.
Many of the soldiers arrived at Palmerola Air Base. The
troops came primarily from Fort Bragg and Fort Ord. Over 55 Air
Force planes from Pope and Travis Air Force Bases were used to
transport the roughly 3,200 men and their equipment.
References
Operation Golden Pheasant - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Golden_Pheasant
Honduran Deployment: Controls Over U.S. Military
Equipment and Supplies, GAO NSIAD-88-220, Government
Accountability Office, September 29, 1988.
GAO reviewed Exercise Golden Pheasant, an emergency deployment
readiness exercise the Army conducted in the Republic of
Honduras, to determine if U.S. troops diverted any equipment or
supplies to the Nicaraguan Democratic Resistance (Contra)
forces.(report,
PDF, 28 pages)
News Articles
March 17, 2025,
"313th MI Battalion Deploys for Operation GOLDEN PHEASANT
(17 March 1988), U.S. Army.
March 19, 2007,
"Show of force brings peace to South America", Team
Pope.
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