Convoy Trip in Iraq Mixes Fear, Boredom

U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew Wharton, of Oswego, Kansas, prepares to drive one of six Humvees in a convoy heading from Baghdad to Fallujah, west of the capital, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006. There was a fair amount of fear in the air as a six-Humvee convoy made the 65-kilometer (40 mile) journey from Baghdad to Camp Fallujah. Once considered among Iraq's most-dangerous locales, Fallujah is less violent since U.S. forces overran the city in November 2004. But it is located in Anbar, a largely Sunni Muslim province rife with insurgents. (AP Photo/Will Weissert) (Will Weissert - AP)

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Being a little bit scared is good. Many Marines say it keeps them sharp during a war in which combat comes in spurts, separated by lengthy bouts of boredom.

A fair amount of fear was in the air as a convoy of six Humvees made the 40-mile journey from Baghdad to Camp Fallujah.

"The IEDs," said Sgt. Andrew Wharton, referring to roadside bombs known in the military as improvised explosive devices. "That's what you've got to be worried about."

"I try not to think about that stuff," he said. "You just try to keep your mind on what you're doing."

Leaning out of the driver's seat of a heavily armored Humvee, Wharton poured coffee he had been sipping from a plastic thermos onto the asphalt near the U.S. Embassy as the journey began.

Once considered among Iraq's most-dangerous locales, Fallujah is less violent since U.S. forces overran the city in November 2004. But it is in Anbar, a largely Sunni Muslim province rife with insurgents.

"In Anbar, we're in a fight," Wharton said. "It's a mixed bag. Some areas are worse than others."

Wharton and other members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's Headquarters Group were to escort Brig. Gen. Robert Neller, the deputy Marine commander in western Iraq, to Camp Fallujah.

The journey was to take the convoy from the capital's secure Green Zone to Baghdad's airport, then onto a highway U.S. forces have dubbed Major Supply Route Michigan _ nobody can agree on what Iraqis called it before the war. That highway stretches west to Fallujah and Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold filled with snipers and suicide bombers.

The Humvees carry as much armor as their frames can withstand. Their engines make deep rumbles reminiscent of school buses.

"If I run out of ammo, I may need one of you to hand me some more. Just reach behind you, pull the top of those containers and push them up here," said Cpl. Michael Liston, an Oakland, Calif., native who served as gunner on the Humvee that carried a group of journalists.

The trip began in silence, with Wharton steering past a military checkpoint and over a dusty bridge across the Tigris River. Sgt. Walter Yenkosky, from Van Nuys, Calif., rode in the front passenger's seat, while Liston pointed a machine gun mounted on the roof at oncoming traffic.