LYONS ? When he signed on for a one-year tour of duty as a truck driver in Iraq, Dean Battershell was looking at the paycheck.

Among hardships he thought he might be living with were heat and scorpions and sleeping in a tent with a dirt floor. But that hasn’t been the case.

Besides the money being “good,” Battershell said he’s sold on the job and is making plans for extending the time. He has been in Iraq four months and recently came home for a visit.

“Five years ago, I would have never dreamed of anything like this,” he said. “But when it’s over we’ll have a little money in the bank and I can say for myself, ‘We did our part.’ “

Kathy Lines, whose husband, Randy Lines, is working with Battershell in Iraq, agreed.

The two men, good friends and fishing buddies, signed up together. Lines has driven trucks for 19 years and Battershell for three and a half.

They headed for Iraq in early February. Battershell is returning for a second four-month tour in June. Lines is slated to be home in early July.

“He’ll stay for the full year. He’s not afraid,” Kathy Lines said. “The food’s good. He likes the people, and he’s made tons of friends from a lot of nations.”

Dressed in blue jeans and a plaid shirt, Battershell sat beside Lines in the back room of his dad’s business, Earl’s Upholstery, on the north side of the Rice County Courthouse square.

In addition to the “good chow,” he’s assigned to an air-conditioned 9-by-12 room outfitted with a single bed. Other amenities include a private bathroom and a PX shopping area with a movie theater, a weight room and a library. He doesn’t need money, except for gifts or pocket change. His checks are direct-deposited in the United States.

Battershell spends his days behind the wheel of a cab-over semi pulling a flatbed trailer. It’s loaded mostly with shipping cartons and headed for different bases.

Hauling time depends on the load, from two and a half hours up. Lines is driving “reefers,” refrigerated semis loaded with perishables.

“We go all the way south to Kuwait and north of Baghdad, east and west, close to the Iranian border,” he said.

The trucks travel in convoys of 10 to 13 rigs.

While “things happen,” Battershell said, he’s not afraid.

“We get hit every once in a while, but it’s a rarity anymore, not an everyday occurrence,” he said. “I go outside the wire not expecting any problems.”

As he rocked back and forth in a well-worn office chair, Battershell talked about what he’s seen and the opinions he’s formed about the politics of war.

The body count’s the big news. Losing even one military life is bad.

But what people aren’t hearing of is the thousands of people on the street whose lives have been saved and turned around, he said. For them, life’s better.

There are long lines of Iraqis joining the military and police, and kids are back in school, he said. The primary coalition goal is to see the infrastructure up and going, bridges fixed and oil back online, he said.

“Even before the war, the infrastructure was shot,” Battershell said.

Holding a photo album of snapshots, Lines joined in describing the life there. She and her husband talk daily by telephone.

“It’s 113 degrees there right now,” she said.

In the heat of summer, the temperature will spike to 150.

Morale is good, with the coalition forces, truckers and laborers from around the world getting along great with one another. Sure, there are times he’s lonely, Battershell said. But, when he was stateside, sometimes he was away from home for as long as two weeks.

While both men have been in the line of fire and day-to-day it’s dangerous, they’re not afraid, Battershell said, noting he’s felt danger in other places, too, like going down the highway in Chicago or southern Los Angeles.

On his return this week, Battershell’s ride from the airport to the company base will be in a “hard car” – an armored SUV with two and a half-inch glass – or riding in the back of a truck.

He’s become aware of the differences in cultures between the Iraqis and Westerners, with worshippers stopping five times daily for prayer or seeing a farmer in a pickup truck hauling sheep and goats in the back seat and his wives in the truck bed.

“I was never pro-war, but I am pro what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s not what you see on TV. We’ve saved a lot of lives by going in and getting that guy, Saddam. When we first took over, the people didn’t understand what freedom is.”