Honduran Deployment

Pursuant to a congressional request, 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.

GAO found that: (1) the Army deployed almost 3,000 combat troops and tons of equipment and supplies, including ammunition, explosives, vehicles, rations, and medical supplies, for the exercise; (2) the Army either expended or returned to the United States all of the equipment or supplies; (3) inadequate identification data made it impossible to absolutely verify the return of two vehicles; (4) the nature of the deployment and the Army's on-site controls rendered diversion of military property to the Contras unlikely; (5) deployed units did not requisition large quantities of nonexpendable or expendable supplies prior to the deployment; and (6) the Army reported minor property losses, damage, and destruction.