2024 Miss America crown goes to active-duty U.S. Air Force officer

An officer in the U.S. Air Force was crowned Miss America on Sunday night. Second Lt. Madison Marsh is the first active-duty service member to win the annual competition, according to the Air Force.

Marsh represented Colorado, the home of the U.S. Air Force Academy, in the pageant. She graduated from the academy last year with a degree in physics, according to her Miss Colorado bio.

In December, a few weeks before the pageant, Marsh told some fellow airmen before a flight from an Air Force base in Nevada that she was "trying to make it a positive thing for the Air Force, for everyone."