In 1979, a small group of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders boarded a plane for South Korea to perform for American troops stationed far from home. They had no way of knowing that one trip would turn into a tradition lasting almost five decades - and, by the USO's own count, more overseas tours than any other entertainment group in history.

It Started With One Flight to South Korea

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders joined their first USO tour in 1979, traveling to bases in South Korea during the holiday season. It was meant to be a one-time appearance for troops who could not be home for Christmas.

It was not a one-time appearance. Members of the squad kept volunteering, year after year, long after the original tour was over.

A Record Nobody Set Out to Break

By 2003, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders had toured with the USO 53 times over 25 years, performing for troops in the Persian Gulf alongside entertainers like Wayne Newton and Gary Sinise. A U.S. Army release from that tour already described them as having performed on more USO tours than any other entertainment group.

The count kept climbing. It passed 78 tours by 2014, reached 81 by 2016, and hit 85 in February 2024, when the cheerleaders returned to South Korea, the country where they started, on the same base circuit their predecessors had visited decades earlier.

In 2015, a widely repeated claim held that the cheerleaders had entertained more troops overall than Bob Hope, the entertainer who helped start the USO's touring tradition during World War II. PolitiFact checked that claim and found it did not hold up: Hope's decades of shows reached an estimated 10 million service members. The record that has actually stood, confirmed by the USO's own tracking since the early 2000s, is narrower and still remarkable on its own - the most overseas tours by a single entertainment group.

Back on a Warship This Spring

The tours have never really stopped. In March 2026, members of the squad flew to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, touring a strike fighter squadron before heading out to the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.

In the ship's hangar bay, cheerleaders in navy-blue tour uniforms met with sailors and airmen preparing for deployment, part of a visit organized by the USO to boost morale before the carrier left port. It was the same basic mission as that first trip to South Korea in 1979: show up, in person, for people a long way from home.

Still Going, Every Year

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have now performed in more than 40 countries for the USO, from Bosnia and Iraq to Afghanistan and the decks of Navy ships. Their tour count stands at 87 since that first trip in 1979.

They are still doing it, every year.

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