Families of airmen grateful for return from deployment to Japan as tension with North Korea builds

The airmen were in Japan on a peacekeeping mission for three months. Their families said they started to worry as North Korea's Kim Jong-un leveled threats against the U.S.

"Recently, it's made me a little uneasy, especially with everything that's going on in North Korea and stuff like that," Kristen Gust said.

Gust worried that if something happened with North Korea, her husband and his comrades would be among the first to be sent in because of their close proximity to North Korea from Japan.

"They tell you to be prepared for anything," Gust said.

Kathy Buckner said her husband has deployed eight times, but this time was hardest because of the age of their kids.

She kept tabs on what was happening in North Korea and spoke about it with her husband.

"Will they come back? I think that was the scariest thing I told myself. But I don't like to say anything to him because he has a job to do. He can't worry about us back home because he's got something to do over there," Buckner said.

Airman Rob Burroughs said they were safe in Japan, but it was still an interesting time to be stationed so close to the Korean Peninsula.

"It was eerie, definitely eerie being where we were. We didn't feel threatened too much. It was definitely an eerie feeling," Burroughs said.

North Korea has threatened to launch four missiles into the waters near Guam by mid-August.