CHEYENNE -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal, making an unexpected trip to the Mideast this week, said he's found troop morale high and the situation better than in previous years.

Freudenthal left on Sunday to visit with Wyoming Army National Guard troops stationed in Iraq and Kuwait and to receive briefings from top U.S. officials in the region.

He's part of a delegation of state governors that includes Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. The trip was paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense.

On Tuesday, Freudenthal visited members of the Wyoming Guard at Camp Virginia, a transit facility in Kuwait for U.S. soldiers.

The four governors also received briefings on the situation in Iraq from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill and Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Speaking from the Mideast to reporters via a conference call Tuesday morning, Freudenthal said he had requested the visit -- his second to Iraq -- to check in on Wyoming troops and to show support for them.

More than 700 Wyoming soldiers were deployed in April as part of the largest mobilization in the history of the Wyoming Army National Guard. The soldiers are scheduled to return to Wyoming in April.

Freudenthal said that so far, he's seen that troop morale is high and that the situation in Iraq appears to be improved since his last trip there in January 2006.

"It seems to be calmer, even in the ways they're moving us (the governors) around," he said. "It's not that it's not dangerous -- it's just I think they're more comfortable with the operation, they're more comfortable with the level of violence than they were a few years ago."

However, he said many Wyoming troops told him they were disappointed to be missing out on hunting season back home.

"I told them that they didn't miss anything -- I went hunting for a week last week and came back empty-handed," Freudenthal said.

Freudenthal said he couldn't reveal many details about his trip, including his schedule and location.

However, in a separate conference call with Georgia reporters, Perdue said that the delegation will travel today to forward operating bases and "get out among the countryside."

Freudenthal declined to give details during the conference call about when he planned to return, though he later said that he has budget meetings scheduled with a number of state agencies next week.

Contact capital bureau reporter Jeremy Pelzer at 307-632-1244 or jeremy.pelzer@trib.com