CAMP CHESTY, Iraq - Two more months. The reservists of the 319th Transportation Company are hoping that's all the time they will spend in a postwar Iraq. After spending the war living without showers, bathrooms, shelter, hot food, air conditioning and their families, a group of soldiers camped by their trucks waited for a convoy to leave and daydreamed of what they'll do when they land back in the United States.
"Rest," Sgt. Michael Ghant said. "Party," Cpl. Darian Jones said. "Spend some time with my son," Spc. John Young said. "Get drunk," Sgt. 1st Class Jose Machado said. "Go to a steakhouse and get a big ol' steak."
A rumor has been going around Camp Chesty that President Bush said reservists would be home by June. "There's a lot of uncertainty, uncertainty about whether we're going to stay in or not, mostly among the younger soldiers," said Sgt. Ghant, 37, of Louisville, Ga.
"I think it'll be 60 days, then we're out." Spc. Darrell Wright, 37, of Columbia, said there are worries among soldiers that when the Marines no longer need the 319th, the Army will have some new assignment for them as the United States begins its rebuilding and humanitarian work.
With the war in Iraq winding down, the pace of work hasn't changed for the truck drivers, but the comfort level has.
Now, they're hauling fuel through central and southern Iraq for sustainment forces who will control the country when the fighting ends. They're still living out of their trucks, still sleeping outdoors and still running fuel-hauling missions almost every day over hundreds of miles.
But with the threat of a chemical attack practically nonexistent, the Army reservists are dressed a lot more comfortably in the hot desert and the long drives aren't as stressful.
For the past week, they have been hauling fuel among Cedar Point in southern Iraq, Camp Chesty in central Iraq southeast of Baghdad, and Basilon airfield in southeastern Iraq. Convoys are running smoother now, leaving on time and driving on paved roads.
Several soldiers have had a chance to return to the unit's headquarters at Camp Viper south of Cedar Point, where the unit commander, Capt. Mohandas Martin, has stayed throughout the war, but they have instead chosen to stay on the road.
Tensions are running high at their section of Viper - called Camp Black Gold - between the lower and higher ranks, they said, and lower-ranking soldiers fear being made to do menial chores, such as changing tires.
"I'd rather be out here, doing what I'm being paid to do," said Pfc. Laci Evans, 19, of Baker County, Fla.
The soldiers at Camp Chesty were driving a third of the 319th's remaining fleet. They arrived there Saturday night, and on Sunday and Monday they relaxed on cots under the shade of their tanks and under a red tarp stretched between two tanks.
They wore their camouflage uniform trousers and brown T-shirts, no longer wearing the thick camouflage chemical suits or the cumbersome chemical mask bags they wore for weeks after moving into Iraq. One man even wore flip-flops.
They wondered how the Masters Tournament was going in Augusta and whether any stores have closed at Augusta Mall. They talked about how much their feet hurt from months of wearing Army boots.
"If you see this pair of boots lying along Walton Way, that's me," said Staff Sgt. Dewitt Gant, 42, of Augusta. "I'm just going to sling them out. That's a sign of retirement."
They read magazines and smoked Iraqi cigarettes bought from civilians by the roadside. They listened to music from a boom box, talked about how much they'd like a cold beer and how there's no way they'll get sucked into going to Korea for another war.
Something exploded in a field about a kilometer away. The soldiers bolted up and went for their masks and weapons, then saw a plume of gray smoke and realized it was only Iraqi weapons being demolished.
Life with Marines Last year when the unit was activated, members of the 319th knew they were going to war, but they expected to be with the Army. They expected to stay well to the rear and have all the amenities the Army provides in the field, such as restrooms, showers and cooked meals.
Instead, they wound up with the Marines, who have relied less on schedules and more on improvisation.
For the first few weeks of the war, the 319th hauled all the bulk fuel for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which essentially meant they were hauling all the fuel for Marines pushing north to Baghdad. The Marine Corps is designed to travel short distances by land and didn't have the equipment to move as much fuel forward as it needed.
The 319th has been driving hundreds of miles on missions that have lasted for as long as four days, then going back on the road again after a short night's rest.
Until two trucks crashed during a night drive, injuring three soldiers, they were running through hostile territory after dark, driving with their headlights off. Their convoys have been shot at, and during one fuel drop they found themselves on the front lines taking cover during a firefight.
"It all paid off, evidently," said Spc. Edricka Burnett, 23, who lives in Atlanta but grew up in Augusta. "We came here; we had a mission. We did what we had to do."
Life at Marine camps and living out of trucks is especially hard on women, who make up one-quarter of the 319th. They find it more difficult to go without showers as long as men, and it's harder to find privacy when nature calls.
Spc. Burnett said she has made do with buckets of water and bottled water to bathe and has had to ask people to hold up ponchos for her to have privacy.
She said that at one point she nearly broke down during the harrowing convoy just after the war started. She had been in the middle of shooting, hadn't had a shower in four days and felt hot and smelly.
"I prayed about it," Spc. Burnett said. "That's what really got me through that time."
Spc. Burnett, a trainer and aerobics instructor at a women's gym in Atlanta, said she is considering become an active-duty soldier after the war. She said she wants to change her Army job from truck driver to fitness instructor.
What she'll do as soon as she gets home: "Lie on a real bed, a bed with a mattress. Just lie there."
Part of history Spc. Albert Harp, 25, of Saluda, S.C., and Sgt. Ciaphus Rouse, 32, of Augusta, said that when they get back home they will get tattoos on their backs that say "Operation Enduring Freedom."
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Cpl. Darian Jones, 36, of Hephzibah, stands guard next to a broken-down vehicle inside Camp Chesty while the truck convoy makes its way out of the base.
JOHNNY EDWARDS/STAFF
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Spc. Harp said he also wants to have the phrase engraved on an Iraqi AK-47 round he found at Refueling Point Anderson, where the firefight took place in central Iraq, and wear it around his neck on a chain.
Spc. Harp said he remembers writing a book report about the Persian Gulf War when he was a teenager. Now, he has been a part of something that will someday be on the History Channel, he said.
"We're a part of history," he said. "The experience, to me, was more than the money."
The two said there's little about Iraq that they will miss when they leave.
"I'll miss seeing those little kids. That's about it," Sgt. Rouse said.
Sitting on a cot by a truck, Spc. Young, 30, of Augusta, swatted gnats on his arms and shoulders. He said he wouldn't miss anything about the Middle East.
"Everything in this country bites you," he said.
Spc. Wright said he wouldn't mind returning to Iraq several years from now and seeing the children again after the country has had a chance to pick its leaders and pull themselves out of their squalid living conditions.
Settling down The soldiers pulled out of Camp Chesty on yet another fuel-hauling mission Monday afternoon. There is little chance they will go any farther north than Camp Chesty, meaning they'll never see Baghdad.
Spc. Wright said that when he gets home, he wants to take his family on a Caribbean cruise.
Sgt. Ghant said he wants to spend time with his daughter. On Sunday, he used another soldier's satellite phone to call her. She turned 5 on April 8, and she asked him what he was going to get her for her birthday.
Sgt. Ghant said that will be easy to decide.
"Anything she wants," he said.
