Editor’s note: PGA TOUR veterans Frank Lickliter II, Corey Pavin, Jerry Kelly, Donnie Hammond and Howard Twitty are spending Thanksgiving week in Iraq paying tribute to the soldiers stationed there as part of the USO’s “Operation Links Handshake Tour.” While he is there, Lickliter will be writing a blog for PGATOUR.com. This is his third installment.

SOMEWHERE IN IRAQ -- Before we left the 82nd Airborne on Friday morning, they pulled a tank up so we could hit some balls off it. That was pretty wild. Some of the troops came up and tried to hit balls, too. We got some great pictures. Then we climbed into the Black Hawks again and headed for Mosul. We had lunch with the troops there and met some truly magnificent people. We eat all our meals with the soldiers, which has been great because we really get to talk to them about what life is like over there. One of the things we’ve found is that we love getting to each post, and we really hate leaving.

After lunch, we hopped back into out Black Hawks and flew north to a post on the Turkish border. There are only about 70 troops stationed there, so we got to spend some quality time with them. We hit balls on a soccer field, and we were really impressed by the first sergeant there, a great guy by the name of Mattingly. That company is from Hawaii, and he’s played a lot of golf there. He hit two drives of more than 250 yards, which is pretty darn good. While we were there, we met the nephew of a man who works at my home course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. His name was Chuck, and his uncle, Doug, works in outside operations at the TPC Sawgrass. In fact, I had talked with Doug the day I left for Iraq. Then four days later, I go as far from Kuwait as possible in Iraq and I run into his nephew. That’s pretty amazing, don’t you think?

As I write this, we are back in Mosul and we’re staying here for the night. We’ll get to spend several hours with the troops here after dinner. We’re staying in connex boxes that have been converted into two-bedroom apartments. We’ve got pillows, sheets, even a little refrigerator. It’s incredibly clean here, too, even though everything everywhere is the color of dirt. You never see any trash between the barracks. We went to the PX today and saw a lot of things you might buy in stores at home. There were tons of magazines, CDs, DVDs and about 30 different cameras. One thing’s different from the malls back home, though. Everyone who walks into the PX is carrying their weapon -- except us, of course. I saw a guy today buying Rice Krispie Treats, his machine gun slung over his back. Things have been extremely quiet, but everyone is constantly vigilant and aware of everything that’s going on around them.

This trip has been incredible. None of us expected to go as far out in the country as we are. We didn’t expect to get to spend as much time with the soldiers, either, which has been really something special. We’ve had some great conversations. They want the American people to know what a great job they are doing, and they feel like they could even do more. There is 100 percent job satisfaction here. The only negative is not being able to see their families. That’s not a complaint. That’s just the reality of the situation.

I woke up around 1 a.m. last night -- my body still is on U.S. time, I guess. As I walked to the bathroom I ran into one soldier who was staying up all night, just walking and pacing around. Turns out, he was leaving the next morning to go home. And we were with guys from one Stryker unit on Thursday that is normally stationed in Alaska. The tours of duty are normally for 12 months, and this group did such a good job that it was called back up after they’d only had three weeks at home. But they understand, and they are extremely good at what they do. The American people should be proud of the troops here -- especially the mothers, fathers, husbands, wives and children of the troops. They are doing a great job.