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VetFamily: Rachel
Smith: Miss USA 
Military
Support One of Her Chief Causes
By
Roy Asfar,
Special to Veterans Advantage
 Army brats can wear a crown, too. Born of two
military parents, 2007 Miss USA Rachel Smith
holds military support one of her chief causes
as the reigning queen.
Rachel Smith was born on a U.S. Army base in
Panama. She lived in Clarksville, Tennessee after
both of her parents were stationed at Fort Campbell.
She attended Clarksville Academy and graduated
from Davidson Academy.
Ambitious and intelligent
and with aspirations of making the world a
better place, Smith is a magna cum laude graduate – a semester
early – from Belmont University in Nashville,
Tennessee in 2006 with a bachelor of science
in Journalism. She received a full tuition scholarship
to attend Belmont in recognition of her community
service activities and academic achievements
in high school.While at Belmont, she interned
for eight months in Chicago with Harpo Productions,
a company owned by Oprah Winfrey. She was later
chosen by Oprah to volunteer at her Leadership
Academy for Girls in South Africa.
Supporting the military
is key for Rachael, too. On her blog at missusa.com,
she says:
“Since
the beginning of my year as Miss USA, I made
a priority to participate in events supporting
our troops. My family’s ties to our military
(Army to be exact, Hoo-ah!) are very strong.
In particular, I have always expressed interest
in traveling to Iraq, to observe the progress
that is taking place with the war first-hand
and to personally thank the troops. So when
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Adm. Michael Mullen extended an invitation
to me to join him on his USO holiday tour,
I was definitely in!”
In December 2007,
it happened – actually
without much Miss USA-like fanfare, as she boarded
a government plane that for security purposes
had no announced itinerary. She then traveled
to Kuwait, Iraq and Naval Station Rota Spain
on a USO tour along with Kid Rock, Robin Williams,
Lewis Black and Lance Armstrong.
Following
a Black Music Month event at the White House
last year, Smith (r) and other entertainers
are thanked by President Bush. |
Miss USA, Miss Universe and Beyond
If anyone said winning Miss USA would put her
on easy street, they guessed wrong. Soon after,
she met many unsympathetic anti-Americans at
the followup Miss Universe pageant in Mexico
City. It was a high-profile attack that could
have shaken the confidence of many.
She persevered. Despite several rounds of Anti-American
boos from the host Mexican crowd during the Miss
Universe Pageant (repeating its 1993 treatment
of an American contestant when the event was
also held in Mexico City), and a well-publicized
fall she took during the pageant as well, she
kept her composure to finish in the Top 5 among
the 77-candidate field worldwide. Highlighting
her comeback was a thank you she gave to the
crowd, in Spanish, drawing cheers from the crowd
that previously booed her.
Beyond the crown,
Smith’s career ambition
is to be a reputable journalist at a national
or international level “so that I may educate
the general public about the world they are living
in.” She also desires to one day be the
founder of her own philanthropic organization
directed towards education, especially for those
in impoverished areas within the USA and internationally.
 Miss USA Notables
Family ties to the U.S. Military are not without
precedent. A 2004 Miss USA contestant, Miss New
York Jaclyn Nesheiwat, traced a path through
Iraq, although with a slightly more personal
twist.
In March of that year, Miss
New York visited her sister Army Captain Julia
Nesheiwat (right) during lunch at the Coalition
Provisional Authority headquarters dining facility
in Baghdad, as part of another special tour through
the region.
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