While this is usually the time of year to spend with family, about a dozen Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have a different agenda for Christmas and New Year's.
A group of cheerleaders departed for the Persian Gulf for their annual holiday USO tour. It's the 75th USO tour for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, a tradition that began in 1979, spanning 49 countries. Members from the DCC typically make two trips overseas each year.
This year's group of 12 of the show group marks the 16th time DCC has visited troops in the Central Command Area of Responsibility (Southwest Asia).
The dozen cheerleaders will perform five shows in three countries on base. The tour includes autograph signings, unit visits, traveling to remote outposts and the nightly dinners with the troops before returning to Dallas on Jan. 2.
In 33 years of the USO tour, which began on the Christmas of 1979 in Korea, more than 240 different cheerleaders have been included in the visits.
