CAMP CHESTY, Iraq - The 319th Transportation Company's remaining fleet delivered nearly 150,000 gallons of fuel Monday to a Marine camp south of Baghdad, then spent the night at the camp to avoid passing through any Iraqi villages at night.
Smoke filled the air and blurred the horizon at Camp Chesty. Marines said the smoke was drifting down from Baghdad. Explosions boomed nearby from land mines detonated by Marines.
Members of the Augusta-based Army Reserve unit have been moving fuel forward since Saturday morning. Drivers spent the past two nights sleeping on cots outside their trucks at Refueling Point Anderson in central Iraq. They are carrying all their gear and currently have no camp in Iraq to call home.
On Monday, they leapfrogged fuel from southern Iraq to Camp Chesty, named for Marine Lt. Gen. Chesty Puller, a hero of the World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It's the farthest north the unit has been.
The trucks traveled on a highway through a pastoral landscape of green wheat fields and tall palm trees. Iraqi civilians waved to military vehicles as they passed brown brick houses, flocks of sheep and herds of camels.
As the convoy passed through a residential area, children and teenagers stood by the side of the road trying to sell cigarettes. There were more boys wearing pants, shirts and light jackets than turbans and robes like those worn by the people along thoroughfares in southern Iraq.
A high-ranking member of the 319th, who asked not to be identified, said the fleet was spending the night at Camp Chesty because it feared sniper attacks if it moved south back through the inhabited area.
"We've found that in a lot of these towns that seem so friendly during the day, at night we get guys taking pea shots at us," the soldier said.
The 319th is working with about half the number of trucks it started with in Kuwait. Trucks that break down on highways and dirt roads end up stripped for parts by passing Marines. Some trucks have been lost because of flat tires.
Sgt. 1st Class David Uthe, 44, of Augusta, who is camped at Chesty to monitor the 319th convoy's comings and goings, said he doesn't know whether the company will go any closer to Baghdad.
"I doubt it, but anything's possible," he said.
