About 900 members of the Illinois militia are scheduled tomuster in Honduras this winter and next spring in a project thatmight spur efforts to prohibit the Illinois National Guard fromtraining in Central America.
Members of the Guard, deployed in 17-day non-combat trainingstints, will help build a 5.5-kilometer dirt-and-gravel road through"austere and remote tropical conditions" in Honduras from Januarythrough May, according to the Defense Department.
Called Blazing Trails '87, the project will also include about900 Illinois-based Army reservists in training and "humanitarianservice," such as veterinary and dental work, says a Fourth Armyspokesman at Fort Sheridan.
Only about 90 Illinois guardsmen will be in Honduras at any onetime in 1987, Guard officials said.
The mission involves the largest deployment of Illinois militiato Central America so far, and will include about 300 from theChicago-based 108th support battalion. This year, about 70 IllinoisAir National Guardsmen trained in Honduras.
Reservists from Illinois who will train in Honduras includemembers of an Aurora-based engineer battalion, a Glenview-basedair-maintenance company, military police companies from Rosemont andChicago, and dental and veterinary units.
"We learned some lessons in Vietnam, and it seems thisadministration hasn't learned those lessons," said state Rep. EllisB. Levin (D-Chicago), who will introduce legislation next month toprevent deployment of state units in Central America until astatewide advisory referendum can be held on the issue in 1988.
The Pentagon and Illinois National Guard said the purpose of theexercise is to provide reservists with "valuable experience indeployment techniques and essential training with heavy engineerequipment."
The site of the training is "pretty far removed from any currentaction," said an Army Forces Command spokesman, who termed thechances of fighting breaking out there as "very negligible - remote."
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