Local company moves into Iraqi desert

CAMP COYOTE, Kuwait - The 319th Transportation Company packed up camp and moved into the Iraqi desert early today.

The members of the Augusta-based Reserve unit were told at 4:30 a.m. they were moving out of the northern Kuwaiti desert. By 6 a.m., the long trek to the new camp had begun.

The move came after an exhausting two days for the reservists, brought on by the start of the ground war.Scud alerts roused them out of their cots at least six times between lights out Thursday night and daybreak Friday morning.

The 319th was stationed at Camp Coyote to haul bulk fuel for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, elements of which were involved in fierce fighting Friday to seize the strategic port of Umm Qasr on the Kuwaiti border.

At Camp Coyote, loud booms and explosions sounded in the distance. A few soldiers nodded off on the dirt floors of the bunkers. Sometimes the whistles were accompanied by someone yelling, "Gas," the warning to strap on chemical masks.

On Friday morning, no one could remember for sure how many times they'd gotten out of bed the night before.

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"It seems like it was more than six. It seems like it was probably eight," said Spc. Rafael Murray, 27, of Columbia.

Sgt. Michael Ghant, 37, of Louisville, a gulf war veteran familiar with Scud attacks, said he wasn't sure if he heard any Scuds hit on Friday.

"I think I heard one, but they were moving a lot of containers around and stuff," he said.

Other than the Scud alert whistles, the members of the Augusta-based 319th have no consistent means of keeping up with the war's progress.

There is no cable television, Internet or newspaper delivery at Camp Coyote. Updates come over the radio, but not everybody listens, and news gets passed around from person to person, twisting its accuracy.

Go to the Conflict with Iraq section for previous stories about the 319th Transportation Company.

Last week, word was going around the camp that actor Jim Carrey had died. Another rumor had it that President Bush was making a trip to Baghdad. On Friday, soldiers were temporarily pleased to hear that the United States had finally captured Osama bin Laden - until that also turned out to be false.

But there are other unmistakable signs of war at the camp, such as the roar of helicopters, the overhead hum of remote-controlled spy planes at night, and the occasional missile trail spotted in the night sky.

"Every day, the war becomes more and more real for these guys," 319th commander Capt. Mohandas Martin said.

--From the Saturday, March 22, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle