Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is hitting the road this week to visit active-duty troops, wounded warriors and defense workers at various military installations and facilities in Texas, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Hagel's first stop is Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where he will speak to wounded soldiers and the hospital staff, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said in a statement. After San Antonio, Hagel will be heading west to Albuquerque, N.M., for a tour at Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base, which is home to the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center. Hagel will not only meet with servicemembers at the Air Force base, but will also receive security and safety briefings.
The last stop of Hagel's tour is F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., which houses intercontinental ballistic missile training and operation facilities. There, his speech to the active-duty troops will be broadcast live on the Pentagon Channel.
Hagel returned recently from a trip to the Middle East, where he made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to meet with active-duty troops stationed in Kabul, Bloomberg News reported. He told reporters that his two-day visit there "was planned for the sole purpose of working with our troops, thanking our troops."