Miss America, a Fort Smith native, talks about her service in the US Air Force
I think I was in the eighth grade, if I'm correct, when I started looking at the Air Force Academy.
There's a funny story. My congressman that represented me from back home,
when I decided I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy, I wrote out an entire resume,
all of my fact sheet, and I walked up to him in a hallway. I said,
hello, so nice to meet you. I want to be your next candidate to go to the Air Force Academy.
I was serious from day one. Look at this video here, too. We've seen you.
This is a female fighter pilot that flew me at Nellis Air Force Base. Her husband is also an
F-16 pilot. She's the only female fighter pilot in this squadron. She is so cool. Such an inspiration
to a lot of young women. As I was talking about being a military member, the first military
member to win Miss America, I also think about less than 15 years ago, I wouldn't have ever been
able to join combat positions or maybe receive the job of pilot. There are women like her
that broke those boundaries. The first women that joined the Air Force Academy, joined the military,
became pilots, combat positions, you name it. I'm so excited to get to be a part of that legacy,
to open up that door to so many other young women. Look at what you're doing. Thank you.
Let's talk about the purple ribbon that you have there on your sash. Your platform,
your community service is about pancreatic cancer. Why is that so important to you?
I lost my mom on November 1, 2018 to pancreatic cancer. She was misdiagnosed for a while and
only survived nine months from the moment that she was diagnosed to the day that she passed
and was only 41 and had no symptoms beforehand. We don't have a cancer history in our family,
so it is so important to me to educate people to know the signs. Looking for
jaundice, unexplained back pain, abdominal pain, all the different signs to make sure
that you're advocating for yourself. We didn't know that's what my mom had. I can only imagine
if we would invest more in research and advocacy and education, she could still be here. Even though
she can't be here, I still get to be. I want to be a voice for her and all the other patients,
past, present, and future. I'm really excited to get to do that this year.
Before we go, if your mom were here, what do you think she would think of you?
She never actually got to see me compete in pageants because I started after she passed.
I think she would be the one person that would not have been shocked
that I joined pageants. I just think that she would be so excited. A big thing for her is
she wanted to be remembered for who she was and not what pancreatic cancer had made her.
That's exactly what I want to do this year to share her life and her love with
everyone all around the globe. We love you for that. Thank you so much.
Once again, Madison Marsh, aka Miss America. Congratulations and thanks for coming on.