For the third time in his nearly four years as Missouri's governor, Jay Nixon this week joined a U.S. Defense department overseas trip to visit Missouri troops in the Middle East.
"We've had a full day," Nixon told reporters Wednesday, in a telephone conference call that originated from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. "We started early this morning in Kuwait, then had a full day here.
"(We) have been to a number of forward-operating bases. I had the distinct honor, at the 1138th Engineer Company, out of Farmington and the Fredericktown area ... to swear in for extensions of their time serving our country, six of our soldiers there."
That unit's members "are road sweepers," the governor noted. "It's tough work. They're the ones who are out there, doing the hard work to make sure that folks get saved."