Madison Marsh, a 22-year-old fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, achieved a remarkable feat on Sunday night, being crowned the 2024 Miss America.
Representing Colorado, Madison Marsh achieved a historic milestone by being the first active-duty Air Force officer to participate in the Miss America pageant in the history of the United States.
Miss Colorado Marsh, crowned Miss America, carved her name in history as the first active-duty military service member to win the title in the nearly 100-year history of the pageant, according to the US Air Force.
At 22, she holds the rank of second lieutenant in the Air Force and is a recent graduate of the Air Force Academy in Colorado.
“I’m very excited to get to represent women who can break stereotypes,” Marsh said in an interview shared on Miss America’s Instagram story.
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She added that she is looking forward to sharing “what it means to be a member of the military community and Miss America.”
According to ABC News, when asked what advice she wanted to share with other women, Marsh said, in part, “You can achieve anything. The sky is not the limit and the only person that’s stopping you is you.”
Celebrating her, the US Air Force shared a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that featured photos of Marsh in uniform and winning the Miss America title.
The Air Force captioned the photos with the hashtag #AimHigh.
‘Congratulations to our very own #Airman, 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh, aka Miss Colorado — who was just crowned @MissAmerica 2024! Marsh is the first active duty servicemember to ever win the title,’ it posted.
Marsh earned her degree in physics with a focus on astronomy from the Air Force Academy and is currently enrolled in the pursuit of a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, as detailed in her competition biography.