The Queen Wore Combat Boots
Desiree Pabon was lined up backstage at Hollywood Post 43, an American Legion hall in California, trying to steady her nerves and her legs. A sergeant first class in the Army, Pabon was used to walking in combat boots. Heels were another matter.
Wearing an off-the-shoulder evening gown, Pabon, 31, was vying for the title of 2018 Ms. Veteran America. Despite the name and the occasional tiara, Ms. Veteran America is not your typical pageant. There are no height or weight restrictions. There is a talent contest, but there’s also an optional push-up contest. The interview questions focus on the women’s knowledge of military history.
“Femininity isn’t just about looks,” says Army major Jas Boothe, who created the contest seven years ago and sees it as a celebration of all women, no matter what they wear. “We honor and acknowledge that to serve is a sacrifice of every woman who has worn that uniform.”
Pabon learned of Ms. Veteran America when she was stationed in Qatar. “I was scrolling through Facebook, and I saw this picture of two of the queens,” she says. They were facing off in the push-up competition, “staring each other down.
I thought, This looks like fun!”
She was also drawn to the competition’s focus on raising money for homeless female veterans. From 2010 to 2015, the homeless female veteran population tripled to more than 36,000, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Boothe, the pageant’s founder, had once been homeless, as had Pabon, when she was 19. “Seven months pregnant and sleeping on my aunt’s living room floor, that’s how I became part of that statistic,” Pabon says. “I wasn’t living outside, but I became one of the people who are couch surfing. That’s part of the homeless population that’s not counted at all.”
A year after her son, Javon, was born, Pabon rejoined the service; she later married a fellow soldier. Last year, she set her sights on Ms. Veteran America to celebrate how far she’d come.
The high point for her was the talent competition, where she recited a poem she’d written in the voice of a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) member from World War II, wearing a vintage uniform she had cobbled together from ebay. One stanza told her colleagues: “I want you to believe that what you are doing / Is not just for this war but for our future generation of / Female gladiators that we are paving the way for.”
Pabon won the competition and the prize money that comes with it: $15,000 toward a car, a home, education, or a student-loan repayment. As part of her reign, she acts as a spokesperson for Ms. Veteran America and performs 100 hours of community service, educating people about homeless female veterans.
“A lot of people get hung up on ‘I don’t have a talent’ or ‘I’m not good at wearing heels,’” Pabon says. “We want you to know it’s a competition among sisters. It is not about how good you look in a dress. It’s about your compassion for your own.”