Fort Lee exhibit tells stories of soldier/beauty queens

By: Luz Lazo | Times-Dispatch
Published: August 01, 2009

WANT TO GO?

"Kevlar and Crowns" opens today at 11 a.m. at the U.S. Army Women's Museum at Fort Lee and continues for six weeks. For more information and for hours of operation, visit awm.lee.army.mil

THE WOMEN

Evie Alexopoulos Chitty: Mrs. Tampa 2006, currently works at Wal-Mart logistics division, four years of service.

Jeannie Deakyne: Mrs. Texas International 2005 and Mrs. U.S. Beauties 2008, assigned as a battalion executive officer and assistant professor of military science at the University of Texas at Arlington, 11 years of service.

Theresa Flannery: Miss Teen Madison County in 1991, awarded a Purple Heart for her actions during a battle in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004, currently an ER technician, eight years of service.

Jessica Gaulke: Minneapolis Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes in 2006, a diesel generator mechanic, seven years of service.

Joelle Rankins Goodwin: Mrs. Oregon America 2009, currently a professor of military science at the University of Oregon, 22 years of service.

Rose Keravuori: 2005 Ms. Virginia America, now serves as a counterterrorism operations officer in Washington, 12 years of service.

Shannon Morgan: Ms. North America United Nations, a small group leader instructor at the NCO Academy-Hawaii, 13 years of service.

Jill Stevens: Miss Utah 2007 and a participant in the Miss America Pageant last year, currently a combat medic at the Utah National Guard, seven years of service.

FORT LEE They wear the Army uniform and have been to combat operations. They are also beauty queens.

Eight women from across the country, including the 2005 Ms. Virginia America, are featured in an exhibit opening today at the U.S. Army Women's Museum at Fort Lee. Five of them will be at the museum today.

Their beauty and femininity have led them to be pageant titleholders, but they have also won numerous awards for service to their country. Some have been through multiple deployments, including to Iraq and Afghanistan. One of them received a Purple Heart for injuries during a battle in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004.

"Not only are they beauty queens, they are extremely accomplished soldiers," said Robynne Dexter, archivist at the museum.

The six-week exhibit titled "Kevlar and Crowns" provides a different perspective of Army women, Dexter said.

Historically, she said, women have faced sexism in the military. During the early years, women were not allowed to join, so some disguised themselves as men.

"The exhibit really examines the ability of women to navigate life both as a soldier and as a woman. At one point, it was more important to be feminine. Later on in the history of the Army, it was more important to be 'a soldier' and some of that femininity was lost, and now through the source of time, the ability to be a girl and a soldier are equal now," Dexter said.

A pageant titleholder herself, Dexter hopes the exhibit will help change some perceptions people have of women in the Army -- including the ideas that women lose their femininity when they join and that they can't have painted nails and shoot a gun at the same time.

Rose Keravuori, the 2005 Ms. Virginia America who is featured in the exhibit, said there is "a recent movement of feminizing women in the military, but perhaps also an indication that our nation and other nations allow more opportunities for its women -- not only to graduate from college, but also to contribute selflessly to service to the nation, all while remaining feminine.

"I hope that little girls and young women who see the exhibition will see that they have a multitude of possibilities open to them," said Keravuori, who after 12 years of service in the Army now works as a counterterrorism operations officer in Washington.

The exhibit includes a variety of items these soldiers kept at war, including a red nail polish that one of them used while deployed and that was used to paint her toes.

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or llazo@timesdispatch.com.