Tattooed Trooper Takes Kansas

Straight from Wombat-Socho's morning "Live at 5", the preview of everything Instapundit is going to post all day.

Miss America's Sgt. Theresa Vail Is First Contestant to Expose Tattoos

The Miss America Pageant won't know what hit it when it lays eyes on Miss Kansas, Sgt. Theresa Vail.

Once the competition's preliminaries begin in Atlantic City, N.J., on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Vail will be the second contestant in the military to compete (Miss Utah 2007 was a combat medic in the Army National Guard).

But when she struts down Boardwalk Hall in her bikini, she'll be breaking a long-standing taboo with her two giant tattoos – the insignia for the U.S. Army Dental Corps on her left shoulder and the Serenity Prayer running down her right side.

"Why am I choosing to bear my tattoos?" Vail says. "My whole platform is empowering women to overcome stereotypes and break barriers. What a hypocrite I would be if I covered my ink. How can I tell other women to be fearless and true to themselves if I can't do the same? I am who I am, tattoos and all."

Well yes, and you might have athletes foot and toe fungus too, but you wouldn't necessarily draw a circle around it for the pageant.  On the other hand, at least it's a language people can read, and not some oriental script that could say anything.

She's also an expert M16 marksman, a bow hunter, a skydiver, a boxer and a mechanic. She finally had to stop motorcycle racing after breaking all the fingers in her right hand – a potential stumbling block, she decided, to reaching her goal of becoming an Army dentist. She can skin a deer, she has a great squirrel stew recipe (it features sauerkraut) and, one day, she hopes to hunt bear with her bow and arrow.

Mmmm, squirrel.  Just don't eat the heads...

Nine months ago, when she entered her very first beauty pageant (her commanding officer thought she'd be a great role model), she planned to demonstrate archery for her talent. Two days before the competition, she was told "projectile objects" were forbidden, so she had no choice but to either drop out or hustle up a new talent.

"I'd never sung opera in my life," Vail says. "I had an appreciation for it" – she spent part of her childhood in Europe – "and I sang soprano in choir back in high school, but I hadn't sung since then and certainly never opera."

Sounds like a tough one.  I'll root for her, just because she might hurt me if I didn't. More pictures below the fold:

And it's Rule 5 Wednesday over at Wombat-Socho's lair at the Other McCain.