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  • Posted By: doing_tyme @ 12/07/2007 4:27:57 PM

    This young lady is another example of how great America's youth is. She demonstrates how a person can serve their country and go on to higher achievments by using the knowledge gained in the process. This country is built on capitallism and there is nothing wrong with the pagent and what it represents. There is strong and there is Army strong, she has my vote. Sergeant E. Larkin US Army Infantry 1985-1995

  • Posted By: chrispe @ 12/07/2007 3:40:31 PM

    I have two things to say, One, this young woman is inspirational to all young women and would make a great role model instead of what currently catches headlines (yes I'm talking to you Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears) so I would like to hear more about THIS young lady. Two, If she's single, I would love take her out for dinner and a movie.

  • Posted By: AlexD @ 12/07/2007 11:32:31 AM

    I personally think that all pagents which make each women from a different state to compete against each other to see whos the best is a bunch of rhino dung. They should really discontinue these pagents since they hold no form of change or value to society... These women get paid fro appearances and endorsements to bring more money to the organizaton. More capitalism pimping everyday strong and righteous women.

  • Posted By: mcirilo08 @ 12/07/2007 10:10:44 AM

    The contestant competing in the MIss America pageat from Utah is a realy inspiration. The fact that she is serving in the military shows her dedication to her country. After just coming apon this story I was intrigued to know more about this contestant. I have also this close mindedness about woman who compete in these pageants, but now reading this i know that the contestants are more well rounded than i thought.
    Miss Utah is a true Miss America.

  • Posted By: josmwill @ 12/07/2007 8:41:22 AM

    If you complete your research,you will find that Iran actually discontinued its nuclear program in 1998, under guess who, The Clinton Administration. The fatcs are there, just complete your research. It's being covered up to aid Bush Administration in its effort to take credit for something they had nothing to do with. Just like they blamed Clinton for 9/11when they had the intel warning them of an iminent attack. Just simple politics to aid the party in office.

  • Posted By: Mattie36 @ 12/07/2007 8:26:41 AM

    Blackwolf, I was also a hospital corpsman in the USN. I agree with most of your comments, however , can you please learn to spell so you do not embarrass yourself or other military members.

  • Posted By: blackwulf @ 12/07/2007 1:43:08 AM

    wiat a minute everyone why are you agruing do we not leave in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the freedom to excide at what we can, and what we will, and the brave to fight for our freedom, regardless if it is with a gun or a scalple, or if its on the front lines or in a medic tent. on land or at sea. in the air or at home. steavens like all others that have served are freedom have done thier jobs just like those who have not served, have done thier best to make america free and in the morning we all put our pants on one leg at a time. so dont be angry be happy that we are free to do the best we can in life. i to served from 84-90 as a medic in the usn and although i was not packing shells into a 50inch i was proud to know that i was thier to patch thows who were back up and that i also had my fellow americans backs. so be prode that sgt.steavens has done her part as an american and her freedom that she may continue to do her part as a free american. from park city ut. koodos to you and yours sgt. steavens have freedom in everything you for you have erned it.

  • Posted By: blackwulf @ 12/07/2007 1:19:42 AM

    wiat a minute everyone why are you agruing do we not leave in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the freedom to excide at what we can, and what we will, and the brave to fight for our freedom, regardless if it is with a gun or a scalple, or if its on the front lines or in a medic tent. on land or at sea. in the air or at home. steavens like all others that have served are freedom have done thier jobs just like those who have not served, have done thier best to make america free and in the morning we all put our pants on one leg at a time. so dont be angry be happy that we are free to do the best we can in life. i to served from 84-90 as a medic in the usn and although i was not packing shells into a 50inch i was proud to know that i was thier to patch thows who were back up and that i also had my fellow americans backs. so be prode that sgt.steavens has done her part as an american and her freedom that she may continue to do her part as a free american. from park city ut. koodos to you and yours sgt. steavens have freedom in everything you for you have erned it.

  • Posted By: SFC Angel @ 12/06/2007 10:57:07 PM

    I cannot put enough support of SGT Stevens in just a few words - but you truly are an inspiration. I have been in the military for 18 years, toughed out the sexual harassmet of the 90's to see a better and more equal day in the military culture. Seeing the way your unit supported you, and the way you gave back to both the community where you were stationed and the soldiers you served with gives me renewed faith in our service. I too joined a naive high-schooler, and the military made me the person I am today - but I always wonder - is this the best we can do? I see now that as an organization, the military has its marching orders. As a person - you are the one who can make a difference wherever you are. SGT Stevens - you have given this SFC a new reason to serve. Hooah girl.

  • Posted By: SFC Angel @ 12/06/2007 10:56:11 PM

    I cannot put enough support of SGT Stevens in just a few words - but you truly are an inspiration. I have been in the military for 18 years, toughed out the sexual harassmet of the 90's to see a better and more equal day in the military culture. Seeing the way your unit supported you, and the way you gave back to both the community where you were stationed and the soldiers you served with gives me renewed faith in our service. I too joined a naive high-schooler, and the military made me the person I am today - but I always wonder - is this the best we can do? I see now that as an organization, the military has its marching orders. As a person - you are the one who can make a difference wherever you are. SGT Stevens - you have given this SFC a new reason to serve. Hooah girl.

  • Posted By: AlaskaDreams @ 12/06/2007 8:59:32 PM

    My comment will just be a drop in the ocean, but I wanted to say congrats to Sgt Stevesn. From a fellow military female (TSgt USANG) Just because a female serves her country, this does not make her any less womanly. You go girl, from Alaska!!! and btw, though I disagree with some of the comments made from them, Being a Military Spouse is one of the hardest jobs there is, I watched my mom do it for 26 years.

  • Posted By: AlaskaDreams @ 12/06/2007 8:56:24 PM

    Wow, so many people have commented here that I will be just a drop in the ocean, but I too wanted to pass on my Kudos. As a Female TSGT in t the USANG I am very proud of Sgt Stevens. Just because a woman serves her country, this does not mean she does not enjoy being a woman. Thank you to military service men and women everywhere, and their families. They are out there protecting our rights to say what we want on this blog. And as much as I hate to say it, because I do disagree with some of the comments made, Being a military spouse is one of the hardest jobs there is. Once again Thanks and Congrats Sgt Stevens.

  • Posted By: grandpa cory @ 12/06/2007 2:22:15 PM

    Nevermind the rampant sexism in the military. 1 in 3 female recruits will be raped while serving their country, by another countryman. Sexism is deeply embedded in military culture. Military life demands unquestioning obedience to superior officers who are overwhelmingly men, which reinforces time and time again the inferior place of women. Male soldiers are exposed to and become part of a way of life that constantly sexualizes and devalues women. It is an extreme, concentrated expression of the sexism underlying capitalist society generally.

    For most women in the military, the torrent of sexual harassment starts in the academy. Female cadets are often treated with open hostility, enduring unwelcome sexual advances and repeated incidents of hazing. Some hazings are extreme and even life-threatening, including reports of women having their clothes set on fire.

    • Posted By: dbudrejk @ 12/06/2007 5:07:04 PM

      Grandpa Cory,
      When was the last time you were a female cadet in one of the service academies? By the way, the females in the service academies aren't recruits. If you fail to make the simple distrinction of the officer and enlisted traditions how is anyone supposed to place stock in your emotional rantings? Quite simply, your figures are fiction. As a "superior" officer, I've never "endured", "tolerated" nor promoted any sort of sexual impropriety. Many of my male colleagues have not either. Oh, I should take the opportunity to mention that I am a woman. Please stop, think, and meditate on the toxic rhetoric you are outpouring. I only hope that you are not passing down a life full of hate, ignorance, and intolerance to your children and their children. Sgt Stevens is to be applauded for both her service and for her ability to be typified as the American women. Our modern-day woman does it all and she proves this. I imagine that for a woman like her heels are a scarier object than her rifle. Don't worry, Sgt Stevens, the heels don't recoil as much as the rifle! Good luck to you in all of your endeavors. I am glad that I live in a country where a woman can truly choose to do what she would like to do, whether it is service to her country or enjoying her youth in a beauty pageant. Congratulations.

      • Posted By: grandpa cory @ 12/06/2007 7:18:55 PM

        dbudrejk: you can argue semantics all day. Recruit / cadet / NCO. It doesn't matter what title is given.

        Rhetorical questions such as "When was the last time you were a female cadet in one of the service academies?" only work when they have a basis in reality. Obviously, by my moniker, one would assume I'm not and can't be a female cadet.
        What you failed to realize is the "toxic rhetoric" you claim I'm "outpouring" is cited directly from a study the Department of Army Medical Research of the U.S. Department of Defense funded. It's found here: http://scienceblog.com/community/older/2003/B/20036513.html

  • Posted By: wijarhead @ 12/06/2007 3:19:17 PM

    Stantheman, I would suppose that all of the teachers, the journalists, and all of the other "academics" that you speak of would have been able to airlift the victims of Katrina off of the rooftops, or delivery ton upon ton of support for the tsunami vicitms of Dec 26 2005, or maybe asked nicely if Sadaam would leave Kuwait, or if the Taliban would please stop stoning women to death because they showed their faces. Our military does so muchmore than what you seem to think they do. But the one thing that you should be able to be happy about at night is that you have the freedom to speak about what you feel is the truth.
    This soldier is doing something noble with her life and has opted to enter a beauty pageant. And if you feel that by entering a simple beauty pageant that this is capable of stripping away so many years of progress for womens rights then you must feel that womens rights are dfinately on weak footing to begin with.
    This pageant is not a symbol of women being objectified, and if something as simple as this can shake the belief system of the feminists, well I say let's have more pageants! Remember feminists wanted the rights for women to chooses what they wanted to do with their lives, and this woman is doing just that! And the fact that it does not fit your mold, or fall lock step in with the far left it irks you to no end!

    Face it, you are ticked becasue this soldier is being seen as a role model instead of what you lefties are trying to put up for the younger generation to strive for.

    • Posted By: Stantheman @ 12/06/2007 3:54:01 PM

      Our nation's ability to deliver emergency supplies to disaster victims has nothing at all to do with the need for a military. They use the military becuse they happen to be a large number of people on the government payroll who are available to step in in an emergency. But if we chose to create a national emergency response force with some of those funds instead, we could do so. They would presumably do a better job at hurriance relief, as full time professionals trained in that field.

      And again - kicking Saddam out of Kuwait and the Taliban out of Afhganistan (for a while) has nothing to do with the defense of my freedoms. And we didn't care too much about the Taliban's treatment of women until 9/11. Let's not pretend that we invaded Afghanistan to protect Afghan women. But if anything - those are the kinds of evils our military should do more of.

      I do not say that we do not any military at all. I just question this idea that our powerful volunteer army is all that is standing between us and total prostration to the shadowy jackbooted enemy. Do they not have freedom in Sweden? Norway? Australia? It is not their mighty militaries that keeps these countries free.

      • Posted By: wijarhead @ 12/06/2007 6:29:04 PM

        Stan, I have not had to use my car insurance or my life insurance either. And by using your mentality I should just cancel them because apparently nothing bad is going to happen to me. If your home has not been robbed or broken into you should begin to leave your doors and windows unlocked, if your car has not been stolen you should leave it parked on the street with the keys in it.
        Dont be so naieve as to think that their are not people in this world that wish to do us harm simply because of who we are and what we stand for. And if you wish to compare our country to others please look at other countries foreign aid packjages doled out and compare them to ours. All these other countries that you speak of are free because they know they can hide behind Uncle Sam's coat tails if someone in the world acts against them.
        I realize that this comment is not pertaining to the article so I will add a bit of relevance to it, GO SGT. STEVENS! OOOORAH!

      • Posted By: zaq1 @ 12/06/2007 5:13:13 PM

        Stan Said: ???Do they not have freedom in Sweden? Norway? Australia? It is not their mighty militaries that keeps these countries free.???

        No it is our Mighty Military that keeps these countries free.

        Do you not believe that with out our Mighty Military that most of the world would be speaking Russian right now? (I know most of the cold war was during the draft period but we have been all volunteer since 1978) The next giant bear we need to be bigger than is China, they would have rolled south through Korea and throughout the Pacific by now if it were not for a healthy fear of our Mighty Military.

  • Posted By: gregz @ 12/06/2007 6:15:01 PM

    with prime rate going down (.50%) already and another .25% next week) how can payments on current arms be going up? and more importantly, what about the people that got into a forcloser problem now? what happens to the people that just recently lost their homes in the past 2years? whats to become of those people? where's the help for them?

  • Posted By: machinegunjack @ 12/06/2007 3:07:52 PM

    So here you all are whining and crying that women are being assaulted and treated like barbi dolls, when this woman has made; and is continuing to make strides towards a world where you can do what you want and what makes you feel good about yourself, regardless of creed, color, and SEXUALITY. You are complaining about a pagaent that is suppose to elect a spokesperson to represent our country abroad, not a woman that cant finish her sentence while on one of the grandest stages. Ya, women get the short end of the stick in the military sometime, but so does the pfc that cant hold onto his 782 gear long enough to deploy, so does the fat kid that cant do three pullups, or the rock that cant pass a uniform inspection to save his mothers life. You say women get raped in combat but I'm sure that you were the one that begged and pleaded they had the same rights to be there......those were some of the reasons the military didnt want to allow it....it creates a break in the continuity you must have to survive and protect those next to you. Aside from all of your complaints and from an Iraq and Afgan veteran from the same base she was stationed I say to you this: This woman is a success story, not overnight, and not over the internet, but overall. I'd love to meet her sometime, just to tell her thanks and good luck.

    • Posted By: puppylove @ 12/06/2007 4:10:41 PM

      Machine gun: I was with you until you had to go and say " women get raped in combat, but I'm sure that you were the one that begged and pleaded they had the same rights to be there". In retrospect, perhaps you didn't mean that the way it sounded? I mean, is it truly irrational to want a woman to have the right to serve her country AND not be sexually assaulted? I get what you are saying about the men and continuity, etc., and perhaps women in service is distracting to some men. But women get distracted by the male soldiers also. Nobody is going around taking what they want from them. The whole purpose of equality is to put women on an equal footing. That means we want to be treated the same as you would another MALE soldier.
      On the subject of Miss Utah, she is the same as any other woman serving her country, but her stint in the contest is allowing the world to see that not all soldiers look like hell. Good for her, good for the service, good for this country. Perhaps it will allow more women to see serving their country as an option.

      • Posted By: machinegunjack @ 12/06/2007 4:32:26 PM

        Nope I totally think you understood me...I'm sure there are bad apples, but from my experience in both sand boxes, women threw their bodies around like candy...even at married men. Luckily for me none of them looked as good as Miss Utah. But what I meant is that if women are in those situations things like that are going to happen just as they might in a workplace where the general upper management might harrass a woman or ask for favors in order to be promoted.

        The point of all of this is that, Sgt. Stevens....which I suppose she re-enlisted seeing as how the guard is supporting her.; is honest to god one cool ass woman....I mean I never had anyone make me cookies or sponsor muffin eating contests!!!! Cmon guys get off of your high horses and support your sister in arms. She took care of you when you were shot, and she's enjoying her life as an AMERICAN WOMAN!!! All this anymosity is ridiculous. Like I said before, I support ya girl and good luck!

        • Posted By: bookwoman @ 12/06/2007 5:50:42 PM

          "from my experience in both sand boxes, women threw their bodies around like candy...even at married men."

          Ah, the good old "she asked for it" argument...nice one.

  • Posted By: grandpa cory @ 12/06/2007 5:48:53 PM

    Nevermind the rampant sexism in the military. 1 in 3 female recruits will be raped while serving their country, by another countryman. Sexism is deeply embedded in military culture. Military life demands unquestioning obedience to superior officers who are overwhelmingly men, which reinforces time and time again the inferior place of women. Male soldiers are exposed to and become part of a way of life that constantly sexualizes and devalues women. It is an extreme, concentrated expression of the sexism underlying capitalist society generally.

    For most women in the military, the torrent of sexual harassment starts in the academy. Female cadets are often treated with open hostility, enduring unwelcome sexual advances and repeated incidents of hazing. Some hazings are extreme and even life-threatening, including reports of women having their clothes set on fire.
    "The Sexual Harassment of Female Active-Duty Personnel," H. Antecol and D.A. Cobb-Clark, ideas.repec.org/p/clm/clmeco/2001-27.html
    "Sexual Harassment: Open Season on Working Women," B. Corbin and L. Bennett-Haigney, www.now.org/nnt/03-97/sexual.html#military
    "Researchers study women's risk of rape in military," March 2003,
    The New Standard, 6/16/2004

    Another clever recruiting campaign. Female recruitment rate is down...let's show a pretty woman in a contest to be pretty. It's not enough that she's an accomplised medical worker.

  • Posted By: grandpa cory @ 12/06/2007 5:41:37 PM

    dbudrejk: you can argue semantics all day. Recruit / cadet / NCO. It doesn't matter what title is given.

    Rhetorical questions such as "When was the last time you were a female cadet in one of the service academies?" only work when they have a basis in reality. Obviously, by my moniker, one would assume I'm not and can't be a female cadet.
    What you failed to realize is the "toxic rhetoric" you claim I'm "outpouring" is cited directly from a study the Department of Army Medical Research of the U.S. Department of Defense funded. It's found here: http://scienceblog.com/community/older/2003/B/20036513.html

  • Posted By: woodsman1st @ 12/06/2007 5:31:03 PM

    YEEEEEHHAAAAAWWWWWW!

    Way to go Sgt Jill Stevens!!!!!!
    Thanks for serving our country. You have already won the hearts and minds of all real Americans.

  • Posted By: a_perfect10 @ 12/06/2007 3:16:01 PM

    It's fun to see someone who fell down the stairs at Miss Utah (in her evening gown) end up winning and go on to the Miss America Pageant. But I do have to think that perhaps one of the only reasons 'Miss Jill' made it as far as she did is because she is capitalizing on her time spent in the national guard. If she does win, I am afraid it will only be because she has the best 'sob story' of the year. However, I do think she has done and will go on to do really good things for the causes she believes in. It just turns me off that she is exploiting her service so publically. What about the other girls from the other 50 states? Could we hear about them? (Perhaps I am just sick and tired of hearing about the war we're in currently. I am a wife of a army veteran who spent much more time over in Iraq than 'Miss Jill'...)

    • Posted By: Just Another American @ 12/06/2007 4:05:37 PM

      I'm sorry you don't respect her time served

      • Posted By: kimberlymad @ 12/06/2007 5:00:27 PM

        That's SGT Stevens to you lady (and I do use the term loosely.

    • Posted By: nikki6 @ 12/06/2007 3:49:50 PM

      Oh Please. She is MIss America. You were married to military. She IS military. Has she exploited her service or has she been exploited. She's been exploited by this country. After what she's seen and been through. I would give her the crown hands down. You are just mad b/c she's a real perfect 10 and you really are not. HA

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