Pageant News Bureau - Heather Gross

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u

An officer and a lady

Photos courtesy of Heather Nevelyn Gross

Heather Nevelyn Gross is proud to be serving America. She's a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, flying helicopters out of her duty station at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Now, Ms. Gross says, "it would be great to represent America." She's hoping to make it to Atlantic City to vie for the Miss America crown. But first she has to win her state title.

She is competing as Miss Greater Dothan in the Miss Alabama Pageant in June 2004. Dothan has produced some of the most extraordinary pageant winners in the world, including our own Leslie Sale, Miss Pageant.com. Ms. Gross is carrying on that glorious tradition.

She's not just a pilot. She also has distinguished herself as a trumpet player, criminal justice student and volunteer firefighter. Her platform is fire prevention.

Ms. Gross, who was born in New York and went to college in Pennsylvania, has spent most of her life in Maryland. She twice competed at Miss Maryland. But now she's in uniform, and in another state. You go where Uncle Sam sends you.

In the old days, military pilots painted images of women on their aircraft, and even gave the aircraft women's names. Now many of the pilots are women, but they're still worth painting. If anyone ever names a helicopter for Heather Nevelyn Gross, she'd like it to be called Miss Alabama. Or maybe even . . .

P a g e a n t N e w s B u r e a u