Soldier preparing to compete for Miss America as her unit prepares to deploy
Specialist Maura Spence-Carroll with her crown. (Army/Specialist Matthew Marsilia)
Specialist Maura Spence-Carroll was crowned Miss Colorado this year. Her unit is scheduled to deploy to Iraq; however, she will remain at Fort Carson as a part of rear detachment as she prepares to compete for Miss America. As Miss Colorado, she wants to address mental health within the military and veteran communities.
From Fox News:
The unfortunate death of her sister was paired the following year with the passing of her grandfather, Bob Boyett. He was an Air Force veteran who worked in military intelligence at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs and was involved in at least four plane crashes and worked with the CIA after his military service, Spence-Carroll said.
Along with her sister, they are her primary motivation, she said. Her grandfather instilled in her a sense of service and a strong work ethic, she said.
Spence-Carroll’s entry into the world of beauty pageants began when she was 13 at the urging of her mother, who spent years as a professional singer in a Celtic folk-rock band and taught her daughter classical music.
“I guess just being a weird kid in general, I would loiter on the playground,” she said. “She thought it would really be a good idea to do something to help boost my confidence. When she first told me I could compete, I was so excited. I was thrilled.”
“The thing it helped me realize is that there is no one idea of beauty,” she added. “We tend to think of beauty as you’re either pretty or you’re not and there isn’t a binary in this world. Being involved in this organization and doing what I do there’s going to be days where people think I’m beautiful and others don’t. I shouldn’t change myself or change the way that I think or feel or present myself because that’s not being authentic.”
Fox News has a detailed account of the sequence of events that lead Specialist Maura Spence to the Army as well as to her current aim to compete in the Miss America pageant.
Category: Army
Duty Fir-NO WAIT, a big PC PR stunt…
Fuck no.
Get out the Army if you want to do civilian shit in the civilian world.
But the starred dudes want a PR coup.
Why are we still in Iraq?
Good question. Regardless, Specialist Maura Spence-Carroll gets to go traipse around stages looking pretty while the rest of her Unit has to embrace the suck in the desert! I bet that is doing wonders for morale.
But, but,but..waddabout pretty pictures:
https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=116150
API:
I understand what you are saying…
However, in fairness to the SPC….(I believe what she said)…
From the article:
“Under normal circumstances, Army Spc. Maura Spence-Carroll – who was crowned Miss Colorado 2021 earlier this year – would be getting herself ready for an upcoming deployment overseas.”
“Instead, she’s helping her fellow soldiers prepare for their rotation to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and will remain in Fort Carson near Colorado Springs.”
“I volunteered and then my unit said ‘No you’re going to have to go to Miss America’ – this is before I was Miss Colorado… so they didn’t put me on the manifest,” she told Fox News.”
“Spence-Carroll, 21, an intelligence analyst with the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, will stay behind with other active-duty soldiers in her unit as she prepares for December’s Miss America pageant in Connecticut.”
“She’s excited to compete for the Miss America crown but disappointed she won’t get to deploy to Iraq with her unit, she said.”
“I said ‘I will extend through the deployment,’” Spence-Carroll said. “You join because you want to do this. I’m hoping that when I’m in the reserves next year… that I can get a deployment or two under my belt.”
What a bullshit article.
Kinda like the Soldiers competing in the Olympics??
Awwright, I stand corrected.
I don’t see a deployment patch either.
Why are we still in Iraq?
Because reasons.
Also, why are we giving 5 billions a year to Iraq, when Iraqi government is openly allied with Iran?
Something does not compute. Some politicians are getting one hell of a kickback.
MOST politicians won’t do shit for anyone unless they get a kickback in some way, shape or form, it’s been that way forever. Foreign Aid is loaded with kickbacks.
Good look’n gal – in or out-of uniform. Definitely my kind of Lady… Best of luck to her in all future ventures!
I guess I’ll have to be the one to address the ol’ proverbial elephant in the room. OAM would expect nothing less from me.
YES, IDC SARC would hit that!
We now take you back to your regularly scheduled WOT. Good Luck Troopette, and a BZ to your unit for backing you.
It’s cute when you almost, kinda, sorta try to self-censor.
?!?Whut?!? Who me?
She doesn’t look that good in uniform. I never noticed her and I have been by the S2 shop far too many times.
Good for her!
Best of luck, young Lady, in the upcoming Miss America Pageant.
“I guess I was just being a weird kid in general…”
Sounds like she fits right in with the rest of the military. I got no problem with it: I’ve seen people do entire enlistments on the All Service sports teams and no shred of MOS credibility. Good on her if she wins and it will be a hell of a coup for the Army if she pulls the whole thing off.
Colorado? Article says she’s from Texas. As is appropriate.
Could have been the “Deployment Quean”?
Deployment Queens are like barely a 5 out of 10, who becomes an instant 9 because of the deployment, and after redeploying back goes back to a 5, and wonder why all the high value guys ignore her.
Do not confuse with alpha widows, who are 5s or lower who get into a hookup with high scoring alpha male, because gurls don’t understand that males date up and down the scale while females only date their level or higher ignoring the rest. After that hookup the alpha widows thinks she deserves a 10 and ignore all males scoring lower than that, thus staying single until it is too late and biological wall kicks her out of the market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omMVD3qGw58&t=1196s
From Popps!
In Korea, 1965, the division commander’s jeep driver was on the division baseball team spring-summer and drove when season was over. Used to, maybe still do, divisions and posts had full football, basketball and baseball teams, track and field, boxers (see From Here to Eternity). I don’t see any difference, except SP Spence is a woman.
“In before it was cool…”
I know in the 80s when I was a Brat in Germany, the base football team (Military members) were assigned to the base gym as fitness personnel.
Would suck if your star football player got hurt. They also had weight waivers!
Bitburg Air Base (the mid-70’s):
The starting Free Safety (Bob Harris) for the Barons was a Wire-Dog in the Commo Section for our Army Chap/Vulcan ADA Battery that was based there.
No special exemptions, pulled his weight just like everybody else.
I was a Brat at Bitburg 82-85, dad was stationed at Spangdahlem.
Later I got stationed at Rhein Main 88-92.
While we were there, some of the Big Barons as we called them, were working at the gym. Don’t know if all of them had it that easy, but I know some did.
Yep, the mid-70’s were the milk & honey days for the Bitburg Barons, what with them being the USAFE league champs in 76,77,78 and 1980.
The Spangdooley Shieks, not so much./smile
After I ETS’ed Active Duty I once worked with another Guy who told me all about his time on a Soccer Team, it was ALL he did all through his Enlistment.
Absolutely LOVED this particular episode and any subsequent episodes in which our Colonel Sherman T. Potter is heard to vehemently declare the word GRUMPY!!! Was introduced to a US Army MUST-unit Colonel in the late ‘80’s that fit that particular character description to a Tee(and funnily enough, was introduced to him as ‘THE head-honcho-in-charge of everything to do with the 376th Combat Support Hospital’ – met him on a summer MilEx at Ft Drum – exceedingly cool dude off-duty and not as old as Potter but one Sr. nurse I spoke to later said his nickname was Colonel Werewolf when he was on-duty. I shrugged and said our Colonel was mostly the same but had a Brit accent instead and also didn’t tolerate nicknames). Loved the movie, loved the series and everything about both… Cheers *clink* for posting this
Well. Perhaps there is at least one other difference between a beauty pageant and team athletics, whatever the gender of the participants. Athletics and team participation in same at least builds something directly related to military mission accomplishment and readiness. Can the same be said of beauty pageants?
But people were incensed that the Navy Football player would be given (or not”) a shot to play in the NFL.
What am I missing here.
Maybe a one month beauty contest versus a full time career in the NFL pissing away an Academy education? Missed that part mebbe?
No.
I did not miss that part.
But, hey, if they have to fly her back to the states to compete, go for it.
I also think the kid should have been allowed to play.
You only get a one window.
Miss that part, mebbe?
But then again, the roles are not reversed.
No issues with that as long as he invents a time machine and goes back in time and gets out of the academy allowing someone who will serve his country to take that spot.
You seem like a Light guy.
Gotta tell you, in all my time in the IN, I have yet to see someone not pull for them to be a successful / professional athlete, if given a shot.
But maybe I have been out a while….
Couldn’t she have just got knocked up to duck deployment?
They should fly her downrange when its over.
I also wonder if a transgender pageant is held and the military has a contestant, if they will be allowed to compote as well?
Once the standard is set, it should stay the standard.
How about one of the guys scoring a slot in the Mr. Universe competition or one of those coveted slots Chippendale positions?
And the Navy guy cant play ball?
Yeah.
So lets see. The Navy guy gets hurt (bad) his first year and he is out of he NFL. Annapolis or not. He loses money (maybe if he is good) big time.
Mr. Universe or Ms. America gets shot or burned. Yeah. There goes their modeling contract or competitive ambitions.
1/2 of one, a dozen of another.
At least Mr. Universe or Ms. America would have deployed…..in a theoretical world. But that doesn’t exist because that have not at this point.
I was a Light guy. We pull for these folks. It seems many here do not.
So the “standards” comment stands.
And the odds favor the woman. 50-1 (or so). Dude’s are a lot longer.
She wins, she will do nothing but PR for the DoD. Make her do a 20 year reserve contract (or more). I mean, the photos shoots, the modeling, etc.
Same with dude. If he makes a team and plays one snap? 25 year Reserve contract.
In both cases, you fuck it up….you pay hard.
Folks (the lucky ones anyway) have only one window in life. Put it to you this way in a very loose analogy: Pole Dancers and Professional Athletes have one common goal: to fend off the younger folks coming after your job. Common sense. And ain’t nobody beating Father Time.
So why not?
Great PR for the DoD either way if they are successful.
And I GUARANTEE her peers in her unit are pulling for her. Just as are his.
But maybe beauty and color are clouding folks viewpoints?
Just stating obvious and being fair.
The windmills were at least real in Don Quixote’s sight. Some of you are looking at chimera and have no lances.
“, having herself struggled with depression, anxiety, and ADHD.
Her ADHD diagnosis only came after she enlisted in the Army in 2018 and turned to its medical team for help with her mental health struggles -…”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9869869/Soldier-miss-Iraq-deployment-compete-Miss-America.html
Wasn’t Bradley Manning also an “intelligence analyst”? I wonder if intelligence analysts still have access to damn near every secret we have.
6 July 2021:
“Excited To Represent Our Fine Military’: Naval Academy Grad Being Allowed To Play In NFL”
https://wjla.com/news/local/naval-academy-grad-being-allowed-play-in-nfl
“A U.S. Naval Academy football player and graduate released a letter Tuesday announcing he’s being allowed to play in the National Football League for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”
26 July 2021:
“Army Shooter Is First US Service Member to Win Gold Medal at Tokyo Olympics”
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/07/26/army-shooter-first-us-service-member-win-gold-medal-tokyo-olympics.html
“An Army Lieutenant became the first U.S. service member to clinch a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with a first-place finish in women’s shotgun skeet on Monday.”
“First Lt. Amber English, a logistics officer and member of the Army Marksmanship Unit, bested Diana Bacosi of Italy, the 2016 women’s skeet gold medalist.”
24 February 2007:
“Sailor Makes It As fmFinalist On American Idol”
https://www.stripes.com/news/sailor-makes-it-as-finalist-on-american-idol-1.60779
“A sailor who performs in the Navy Band Southeast’s rock group made his debut on the biggest pop stage in America this week.”
“Petty Officer 3rd Class Philip Stacey, stationed in Jacksonville, Fla., is one of 10 male finalists in American Idol.”
29 August 2019:
“Face Of Defense: From ‘American Idol’ to American Airman”
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/Story/Article/1947174/face-of-defense-from-american-idol-to-american-airman/
“Nalani Quintello quit ”American Idol” to be in the U.S. Air Force – that’s how excited she was to join up. Now, she’s serving her country as the lead singer of Max Impact, the service’s six-member rock band. Its mission? To travel the world honoring our vets, connecting with communities and inspiring patriotism through music. It’s something she never saw coming as a kid, but now she can’t imagine doing anything else.”
6 June 2016:
“VSU graduate, US Army Officer Deshauna Barber named 2016 Miss USA”
https://www.nbc12.com/story/32150008/vsu-graduate-us-army-officer-deshauna-barber-named-2016-miss-usa/
“Being the daughter of a retired Army Master Sergeant, Deshauna decided to join the Army.”
“She commissioned as a Quartermaster Officer in 2011 and is currently a Logistics Commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit at Fort Meade, Maryland.”
“In her bio on the Miss USA website, Deshauna said she has a passion to serve the men and women in the U.S. military, specifically focusing her platform on PTSD treatment for soldiers returning from deployments and suicide prevention in the Armed Forces.”
“Deshauna will now represent the United States in the Miss Universe pageant.”
30 March 2021
“Beauty Queen Deploys To Iraq As A Logistics Officer”
https://www.army.mil/article/244786/beauty_queen_deploys_to_iraq_as_a_logistics_officer
“Florez is not the only service member to compete or win a pageant title. She joins a number of service women who choose to compete in pageants including Army Reserve Capt. Deshauna Barber, Miss USA 2016; Texas Army National Guard Staff Sgt. San Juanita Escobar, Mrs. Texas Galaxy 2018, and 1st Lt. Angela May DiMattia, Ms. Colorado 2019.”
“You would be surprised how many service women compete in pageants,” she said. “I have been lucky to meet several along the way.”
2 October 2012:
“Jeopardy! Looking For Military Contestants”
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/oct/02/jeopardy-looking-military-contestants/
“The game show Jeopardy is looking for active-duty service members to compete in a special tournament for military contestants.”
“According to the show’s website, active-duty military will be able to take an online test on October 9th, the first step in qualifying to be on the program.”
“What Is The History Of Elvis Presley’s Military Career?” https://history.army.mil/faq/elvis.htm “Elvis Aron Presley entered the United States Army at Memphis, Tennessee, on March 24, 1958, and then spent three days at the Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, Reception Station. He left active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on March 5, 1960, and received his discharge from the Army Reserve on March 23, 1964.” “During his active military career Mr. Presley served as a member of two different armor battalions. Between March 28 and September 17, 1958, he belonged to Company A, 2d Medium Tank Battalion, 37th Armor, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. During this assignment he completed basic and advanced military training.” “Mr. Presley’s overseas service took place in Germany from October 1, 1958, until March 2, 1960, as a member of the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor. For the first five days of that period he belonged to Company D of the battalion, and thereafter to the battalion’s Headquarters Company at Friedberg.” “While in Germany Mr. Presley wore the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 3d Armored Division.” “Soldier-Champ: Joe Louis Sacrificed Much For His Country” https://www.army.mil/article/121005/soldier_champ_joe_louis_sacrificed_much_for_his_country “He donated money to the military services, demonstrating his support for the war effort.” “When that fell short of his aspirations, he walked away from a life of privilege, enlisted in the Army and plunged himself into the toil of service, travelling thousands of miles to lift the spirits of fighting men and women.” “Louis’s work as a patriot and Soldier during World War II is a telling tribute to his personal character. He donated the purses from two fights — nearly $100,000 — to the Army and Navy relief societies in 1942. When he joined the Army later that year, he would embark upon a schedule of staging 96 boxing exhibitions during nearly four years of service at installations all over the world including Fort Lee on Sept. 15, 1943. More than 2 million military members saw “The Champ” strengthen their sense of purpose through his athletic skills, wholesomeness and humility.” “At the conclusion of his military career in 1945, Louis was… Read more »
30 March 2021
“Beauty Queen Deploys To Iraq As A Logistics Officer”
https://www.army.mil/article/244786/beauty_queen_deploys_to_iraq_as_a_logistics_officer
“Florez is not the only service member to compete or win a pageant title. She joins a number of service women who choose to compete in pageants including Army Reserve Capt. Deshauna Barber, Miss USA 2016; Texas Army National Guard Staff Sgt. San Juanita Escobar, Mrs. Texas Galaxy 2018, and 1st Lt. Angela May DiMattia, Ms. Colorado 2019.”
“You would be surprised how many service women compete in pageants,” she said. “I have been lucky to meet several along the way.”
I think beauty pageants are ridiculous and I do not think they empower women. I also don’t think the participants make particularly good role models.
However, we do give these kinds of deployment exception considerations to military athletes and other members participating in national and international competitions. There are 19 military members on the US Olympic team.
So this is not that unusual.
It just feels absurd because a beauty pageant seems so far from military priorities or values. Athletic competitions seem in line with military priorities.
Beauty contests? No.