Pilot Madison Marsh became the first active-duty Air Force officer to win the Miss America title.
According to CNN, Marsh, who is a second lieutenant in the Air Force, 22, won the competition on Sunday as Miss Colorado.
Following her win, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade congratulated Marsh on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Madison, the [City of Colorado Springs] wishes you great success. You have inspired countless young girls to dream big and reach for the stars. Congratulations!” he wrote.
The U.S. Air Force also commended Marsh on X for her victory.
“Congratulations to our very own [Airman], 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh, aka Miss Colorado — who was just crowned [Miss America] 2024! Marsh is the first active duty (sic) servicemember to ever win the title,” the post reads.
She is also studying at the Harvard Kennedy School to get her master’s degree in public policy.
The pageant consisted of 51 contestants representing all 50 U.S. states, along with the District of Colombia. Marsh had to go through three nights of preliminary competitions, narrowing down the field to 11 semi-finalists, per CNN.
During the talent round, the Arkansas native performed a monologue about receiving her pilot license at the age of 16.
During the “hot topics” discussion round of the competition, which covered topics such as technology, nutrition, climate change, and terrorism, the Arkansas native spoke about “drugs in America” and mentioned her late mother who succumbed to her battle with pancreatic cancer in 2018.
This inspired Marsh to create the Whitney Marsh Foundation to raise money for cancer research, per The New York Post.
In an interview with “Fox and Friends” Saturday morning, Marsh opened up about competing in the upcoming pageant. She also revealed she is a “pilot select right now, just graduated from the Air Force Academy, and everyone has been so, so excited to get to have me here.”
Additionally, Marsh explained why she wanted to tell her inspiring story during the competition.
“Cause I started flying around 15, that’s whenever I kind of fell in love with the Air Force Academy and the idea of serving,” she explained. “And so I walk through what that flight looks like and some of the things that went wrong and how they relate to me today as a leader and an officer, and kind of how that goes into pageantry as well.”
