A Soldiers Blog

On October 13th, eighteen (out of 100) soldiers of the 343rd Quartermaster Company, a reserve unit from Rock Hill, S.C., failed to show up Wednesday for the fuel convoy's departure for a 150-mile trip to Taji, north of Baghdad. The 343rd has been in Iraq since February. The soldiers refused to drive the transports due to many reasons (reported by the media):

(1) lack of armored vehicles - according to preliminary findings, the 343rd did not have up-armored vehicles upon arriving in Iraq and did not receive upgrades while in Iraq.
(2) lack of vehicles that were not deadlined (meaning safe or able to operate correctly) - for example, a broken fuel injector could keep a vehicle from operating.
(3) lack of convoy security in the form of MP humvees or helicopter gunship support - this is in dispute right now
(4) the fuel they were supposed to transport was alledgely contaminated - this is in dispute right now.
(5) the trip from Talil to Taji is one of the most dangerous in IraqBLACKFIVE