Go to the troops area of our Conflict with Iraq section to read previous stories about the 319th.

Enemy attack erupts around 319th convoy

CAMP VIPER, Iraq - During a fuel hauling mission that lasted nearly four days, 319th Transportation Company trucks took enemy fire in an ambush attempt, and at one point were in the midst of a firefight at a depot close to the front lines.

No one from the Augusta-based Army Reserve unit was seriously injured during the fight, but a specialist suffered a back injury while taking cover and was being treated at a medical tent Friday.

The majority of the 319th fleet departed from Camp Viper early Monday and returned early Friday. They traveled within a convoy estimated to stretch 3 1/2 miles, including both 319th trucks and Marine supply vehicles.

According to the reservists, attacks on the convoy were easily quashed by Marines. During the trip, they saw scores of dead Iraqi soldiers and watched as Marines shot down enemy troops charging at their position.

On one dead Iraqi, someone hung a sign that read, "Vote 4 Bush."

"I wasn't scared," said Pvt. Eric McCormick, 20, of Gainesville, one of the reservists from the Florida-based 228th Transportation Company who was attached to the 319th. "I was surprised that I wasn't."

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"I loved it. I joined the Army because I knew we were going to come here," said Pfc. John Strang, 18, of Aiken, who joined the Army Reserve in the fall of 2001.

On Wednesday night, trucks at a fuel depot had to stop unloading fuel when Iraqis launched an attack that was repelled by Marines. Other trucks arrived amid the fighting. To spot and kill the Iraqis, the Marines fired tracer bullets - shooting streaks of phosphorus light every third or fourth round - then ignited flares, reservists said.

"It was pop, pop, pop; then the flares went up, and it was boom, boom, boom; then it stopped," said Spc. Brande Langford, 27, of Aiken.

Reservists said a group of Iraqis charged over a sand berm and were quickly taken down by Marines. During the fighting, some 319th soldiers fired their weapons into the darkness.

"They didn't have night-vision (goggles), so I don't know what they were firing at," Pfc. Strang said.

Soon after Tuesday's sandstorm ended, part of the convoy took enemy fire as it was crossing a section of marshland. Several 319th soldiers reported being shot at by machine guns.

The Marines secured the area, then moved the convoy through early Wednesday. From that point on, armored Marine vehicles escorted the trucks.

The 319th is the only company hauling bulk fuel for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, and is stretched thin. Truckers had planned to be on the road for 12 hours and took only two prepackaged meals each for the journey.

When they ran out of food, they borrowed from Marine units. Second Lt. Richard Kennedy, 33, of North Augusta, said the commander of an armored vehicle unit gave him 48 packages of humanitarian rations meant for Iraqi civilians. Each package is a one-day supply of food.

Several of the unit's trucks broke down during the trip and were left behind. Abandoned trucks usually get stripped or even set on fire, soldiers said.

On Friday morning, the unit's members finally went to sleep on cots and tents after sleeping in the cabs of their trucks throughout the trip. They spent the day cleaning clothes, eating, cleaning out their trucks, putting up tents and preparing for the next convoy.

"They know now that mentally, they can handle anything," said Staff Sgt. Lance Philpot, 35, of Beech Island. "All those things they taught us in training, those things that are in the back of your mind you think you'll never need, we used them."

--From the Saturday, March 29, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle