NEW YORK \u2013 April 11, 2025 \u2013 <\/b>Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones and Arizona Cardinals tight end Elijah Higgins recently participated in an NFL-USO Tour, visiting U.S. service members stationed at military bases across Kuwait.<\/p>\n
Each year, as part of the NFL\u2019s<\/a> Salute to Service initiative, the league collaborates with its military charitable partner the USO to bring players overseas to meet and connect with U.S. service members. This unique opportunity provides a chance for NFL players to show appreciation to our nation\u2019s heroes and experience a day in their lives.<\/p>\n During this year\u2019s tour, Aaron Jones and Elijah Higgins visited multiple military bases throughout Kuwait, including Camp Arifjan and Camp Buehring. At each location, players participated in meet and greet opportunities with troops, fostering deep personal connections and gaining a better understanding of the experiences of military members stationed overseas. They also interacted with service members to learn more about their roles in the military and received briefs from senior leaders about their missions in Kuwait and the surrounding region.<\/p>\n Aaron and Elijah come from military backgrounds, with both players having parents who served in the Army and Air Force, respectively. Notably, Aaron\u2019s mother was previously deployed to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, providing him with a unique personal connection to one of the bases visited on the tour.<\/p>\n \u201cConnecting with our country\u2019s military community is a cornerstone of the NFL\u2019s Salute to Service initiative,\u201d said NFL Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility Anna Isaacson. \u201cOur longstanding partnership with the USO helps this mission come to life by bringing together players and our nation’s heroes to show firsthand the NFL family\u2019s unwavering commitment to service members, veterans, and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n “USO tours are all about showing appreciation to our service members for their service and sacrifice,” said Jennifer Wahlquist, Vice President of the USO’s Global Entertainment division. “This tour was even more special because Aaron Jones and Elijah Higgins, who both grew up in military families, were able to relate easily with service members and provide that much-needed connection to home.”<\/p>\n For nearly 60 years, the NFL and the USO have partnered to bring members of the NFL family to military bases around the world to engage with and honor the country’s military community. In 1966, the NFL first teamed with the USO and became the first sports organization to send players on an overseas tour to meet with service members, visiting military personnel stationed in Vietnam and the surrounding region. Since then, more than 250 NFL players, coaches and executives \u2013 including legends like Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald and Terry Bradshaw \u2013 have participated in NFL-USO tours spanning close to 30 countries and involving hundreds of thousands U.S. service members.<\/p>\n Throughout the year, the NFL partners with the USO to express gratitude and thanks to our nation’s armed forces. Leveraging the sport of football, the NFL and the USO work together to provide a piece of familiarity and joy to military members stationed away from home. Through the league’s Salute to Service initiative and partnership with the USO, the NFL has recently supported the renovations and expansions of several USO centers at military bases across the globe. Additionally, the NFL recently collaborated with the USO on a special Super Bowl LIX baby shower event in New Orleans to celebrate military families with a newborn or expecting a baby. For more information on the USO, please visit uso.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pictures from this year\u2019s tour can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n About Salute to Service:<\/b><\/p>\n Salute to Service is the NFL’s year-long initiative to honor, empower, and connect with our nation’s service members, veterans, and their families. Since 2011, this effort has raised more than $73 million for military and veteran support organizations such as the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF), the Pat Tillman Foundation (PTF), Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), the USO and Wounded Warrior Project\u00ae (WWP). For more information on Salute to Service, visit NFL.com\/Salute<\/a>.<\/p>\n About the USO:<\/b><\/p>\n The USO is the leading nonprofit dedicated to the well-being of all people serving in the U.S. military and their families. Since 1941, the USO has been by the side of service members throughout their military service. Impactful support is provided through our 250+ locations around the world, a robust care package delivery program, global entertainment, military spouse and youth programming, and much more, all made possible by dedicated donors, corporate partners, volunteers and staff. To learn more and support our critical mission around the globe, please visit USO.org<\/a> or follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter\/X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK \u2013 April 11, 2025 \u2013 Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones and Arizona Cardinals tight end Elijah Higgins recently participated in an NFL-USO Tour, visiting U.S. service members stationed at military bases across Kuwait. Each year, as part of the NFL\u2019s Salute to Service initiative, the league collaborates with its military charitable partner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":77450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-77448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nfl-uso-large.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-k9a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}NFL-USO<\/h3>\n