Miss Colorado becomes the first U.S. fighter pilot to compete for Miss America
Madison Marsh, the winner of the Miss Colorado 2023 beauty pageant, spoke to FNC’s "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Saturday morning about being the first-ever active-duty U.S. Air Force fighter pilot to compete for the Miss America crown.
Marsh, who recently graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, told the co-hosts that the U.S. military is "so supportive" of her ambitions to compete for and win the major beauty pageant title.
The competition has been going on since January 6th in Orlando, Florida, and ends this Sunday.
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The pageant winner told the hosts 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."
Show co-host Pete Hegseth read Marsh’s resumé on-air to show off some of the young woman’s long list of accomplishments.
"In addition to all of this stuff," he said, "you’re a National Truman Scholar, two-time National Astronaut scholar, eight-time Dean’s List at the Air Force – three-times Superintendent’s List, a National Rhodes finalist, certified private pilot, and a black belt in taekwondo, and you’re a graduate of the Kennedy School at Harvard."
Co-host Will Cain chimed in, asking, "So, how first dates go?" He joked that her extensive achievements might be "intimidating" to prospective suitors.
He then asked her about what talent she will be showcasing at the Miss America pageant. Marsh replied that she will give "a monologue" about her "very first solo flight at the age of 16."
Explaining why it’s an important story to tell, she continued, "'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. 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."
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"So, it’s a little bit of a different, non-conventional talent to say the least," Marsh added.
Prepping Marsh for the Q&A segment of the pageant, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked her one: "What is a woman?"
She replied, "You know, serving to me – being a woman in the military is all what you make of it. And for me that’s been being able to do both – that means representing my mom who I lost to pancreatic cancer and living through her life, because I get to live even though she doesn’t."
Marsh mentioned how she finds meaning in "being a leader in the military" and "being a leader in pageantry" and "breaking those stereotypes for young women all around the world."
"I really think that you as a woman have to define that for yourself," she added.