Air Force Officer Wins Miss America

A 22-year-old Air Force officer who may become an Air Force pilot has become the first active duty member to win the Miss America pageant. 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh, Miss Colorado, earned the national title Sunday in Orlando and drew heavily on her private pilot training and four years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to win the competition. She has been selected for pilot training but is currently enrolled in public policy studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. For the talent portion of the competition, she did a spoken word presentation on making her first solo flight at age 16.

As one of the Air Force Academy's pilot candidates, she got a familiarization flight in an F-16 and an Air Force camera crew was there to capture it. The flying footage from the Air Force video has been widely used in mainstream media and she's been inaccurately described as an Air Force pilot and a fighter pilot.