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 fourth installment.

SOMEWHERE IN IRAQ -- We left Mosul Saturday morning in what is fast becoming our vehicle of choice, Black Hawk helicopters, and flew to Q-West Airfield. One of the runways was closed, and we started hitting golf balls down the tarmac. It was the only chance Corey Pavin would ever have to outdrive those long-drive champs traveling with us, Art Sellinger and Brian Pavlet -- and he did! That was pretty funny. There actually were two MiGs at the end of the runway, and we climbed up and hit balls off the wings. The troops loved that. We had a blast, and so did they.

Afterwards, we went to the mess hall and spent a couple of hours with the soldiers. We met Colonel Mike Farley there. He’s a fantastic golfer, and we are all huge fans of his. He was originally a tanker commander and now he is head of base security. He was really something special, and one of many great, great people we met. Everyone is so enthusiastic about having us there. They can’t believe that we spent our Thanksgiving week with them -- and their disbelief and incredulity is very heartwarming for us.

Then we got back in the Black Hawks to fly to Balad Airbase and Camp Anaconda. As we flew away from Q-West we got to watch the door gunners touch fire 7.62 machine guns. That was pretty awesome. Once we finally got to Balad, I had to crash. I had stayed up until 3 a.m. talking to some of the troops in Mosul and I was beat. We had a three-hour meet-and-greet scheduled for Saturday night, so I slept for about 60 minutes before we went to dinner. We had grilled hamburgers and they were great. You can basically get anything you want to eat over here. We’ve been eating so well, it reminds us of home. We spent several hours in the mess hall tonight, and we got some really great patches. Everyone is so giving. My favorite so far is from the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Unit.

By the way, I’ve got to tell you that Jerry Kelly has now been promoted to lieutenant. He got his combat action badge today when he fell down and skinned his knee. He might get a Purple Heart -- we’ll have to see. All kidding aside, though, you can’t believe how inspiring the guys we’ve met are. They know their mission, and it’s just a thing of beauty. It really is.