WHO KNEW?

Somewhere in America this week, a wife will get a Valentine from her soldier husband stationed in Iraq.

Children have gotten birthday messages from military mothers serving an ocean away. Friends have received greetings from buddies who managed to get a card from the back of an Army truck, a tent pitched in the desert or a makeshift hangar at Baghdad International Airport.

Cleveland-based American Greetings Corp. operates 50 front line stores in Iraq. The world's largest publicly traded greeting card company fills each store with up to 600 cards - everything from Valentines to "missing you" messages.

"It's just our part to help connect the soldiers and their families back home," said Donna Eyerman, field manager of national accounts for American Greetings.

The company works with Army Air Force Exchange Services to ship the cards from the United States, set up the tents and offer discounted greetings to soldiers who otherwise would be left with old-fashioned pen and paper to send words home.