Editor’s note: Frank Lickliter II has gone to Iraq this week as part of the USO’s “Operation Links Handshake Tour.” His fiancée, Diane Owen, took Lickliter to the airport and was moved to write this about the emotions she felt as he left.

Frank and I held hands as we drove to the airport Monday. We talked about all sorts of things -- where he was about to go and what we were going to do when he returned home. I distinctly remember Frank saying, “I will only be gone eight days. I don’t know how other military personnel do it -- being gone for one month, two months, six months, a year.” It must be very, very difficult.

As we drove, I felt pangs in my heart about what it might be like to be a military wife driving her husband to the airport. Making it even more difficult for me, I did not know all the places Frank would be going while he was in Iraq.

We kissed and hugged when we got to the airport until the police came over and asked me to drive away. It didn’t seem long enough to say goodbye. I drove away from the Jacksonville Airport in Frank’s red Hummer, tears rolling down my face. I am so glad Frank did not see my tears, because I am not generally someone who cries.

At the same time, I am so glad that Frank is doing what is in his heart, going to Iraq to boost the soldiers’ morale and letting them know we have not forgotten them. I have never been more proud or in love with Frank, and I write this with a new and loving respect for military spouses.