U.S. Sen. John Barrasso said he learned a valuable lesson during his first year in office 18 years ago about the importance of visiting local troops overseas when he traveled to Iraq with the late former Sen. John McCain for Thanksgiving 2007 during the height of the Iraq War troop surge.
“It just meant a lot to them to have someone from home say, ‘Thank you, people at home are thinking of you,’” Barrasso said.
On Sunday, Barrasso visited more than 100 members of the Wyoming Army National Guard’s 115th Field Artillery Brigade, including members of the 2-300th, stationed at three bases in Jordan and Syria.
The troops stationed there represent 16 Wyoming communities, including Casper, Cheyenne, Kemmerer, Lovell, Gillette, Rock Springs, Green River and Newcastle.
“Some of them didn’t know each other before but they are a closely knit group right now,” Barrasso said.
Barrasso also met with the king of Jordan, Abdullah II, while on his trip.
The king told him he loves Wyoming, having skied at Jackson Hole and visited Cody in the past. Abdullah II also offered Barrasso his condolences on the death of former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, who died Friday at the age of 93.
Barrasso also met with the king when he was in Washington, D.C., last month.
Purpose Of The Trip
Barrasso said these troops represent the Cowboy Code, to live each day with courage and take pride in one’s work. For some of the service members it’s their first deployment, while for others it was as many as their fifth deployment.
“They are in harm’s way, and they are keeping us safe and free at home,” Barrasso said. “I go for the sole purpose of thanking them on behalf of the people of Wyoming.”
Barrasso gave each one of the service members a challenge coin, a sign of honor, recognition and respect within the realm of public service.
“Because they’re cowboys and cowboys never quit, and cowboys never complain, and neither will the members of our military,” Barrasso said.
While there, he spent time with the troops and learned about their day-to-day duties, toured their base and joint training center and ate lunch with them.
He also received a briefing from military officials on the security situation and challenges in the Middle East.
Sen. John Barrasso speaks to Wyoming troops in Jordan during a town hall event. (Courtesy U.S. Sen. John Barrasso) 
Sen. John Barrasso speaks with a female Wyoming soldier in front of the Blackhawk helicopter he flew in on to reach the remote base Wyoming troops are stationed at. (Courtesy U.S. Sen. John Barrasso) 
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso said there are many Wyoming flags hanging around the bases. (Courtesy U.S. Sen. John Barrasso)
Touch Of Wyoming
He said Wyoming flags were dispersed throughout the brigade’s quarters, one of which he signed, and the group is unified in representing Wyoming.
He also happened to know one of the senior legal officers stationed there from when he was a small child attending his local church, who also later interned in Barrasso’s office in Washington, D.C.
In addition, the colonel of the 115th brigade is a Cheyenne East High School graduate who was just a few grades behind Barrasso’s Wyoming state director.
“We have 16 communities and everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, that’s the way we are in Wyoming,” Barrasso said. “They’re on the ground and they’re our friends and our neighbors and people we’ve known since they were little kids.”
Barrasso informed the troops about the results of the Wyoming high school state basketball tournaments, also taking place last weekend, met with cheers and groans based on their individual team’s results.
Barrasso regularly visits Wyoming troops stationed overseas, visiting them every Thanksgiving and when there is a deployment of troops. This past Thanksgiving he visited troops in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
“I just go there to thank people for what they’re doing,” Barrasso said. “They’re a long way from home.”
Scene On The Ground
Although Jordan has been a longtime ally of America, the country is located “in a tough neighborhood,” as Barrasso describes it, bordering the West Bank, Gaza and Israel to the west, and Syria and Iraq to the north and east.
“They’re under attack, whether the Houthis are firing weapons, they’re there,” Barrasso said. “When Hamas from Lebanon fires down into Israel, some of those end up in Jordan as well.”
President Donald Trump has ordered American forces to launch military action against Houthis in Yemen, who he believes are fighting on behalf of Iran.
"Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there,” Trump said on Truth Social on Monday. “Iran has played 'the innocent victim' of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, "Intelligence.'"
Barrasso said the Wyoming troops are tracking what the Houthis are firing as well as what the U.S. military is firing at them.
Jordan has also come into the headlines over Trump repeatedly pressuring Abdullah and his government to accept displaced Palestinians from war-torn Gaza, where war has reigned since October 2023. Jordan and its ally Egypt have refused to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Barrasso flew from Washington, D.C. to get to Jordan, taking United Airlines to Frankfurt, Germany, and from there to Jordan. From Amman, Jordan, he took a Blackhawk helicopter to get where the troops were stationed as they are located in a remote location where there are no formal roads.
Jordan is nine hours ahead of Wyoming. Although the country is a half a world away from Wyoming, in some ways Barrasso said it looks a little like the arid, high desert central Wyoming stretch between Casper and Shoshoni.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
