Jill Stevens, newly crowned Miss Utah, is, in her other life, Sgt. Jill Stevens, a member of 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation, Utah National Guard. That makes her one of our best.

National Guard Bureau
Sgt. Jill Stevens, a member of 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation, Utah National Guard, was crowned Miss Utah Saturday evening, June 30, at the annual pageant held at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

As the only member of the military in the running this year. Stevens, of Kaysville, competed as Miss Davis County along with 49 other contestants from throughout the state,

Competing in last year’s pageant as Miss Southern Utah University, Stevens finished as second runner-up. She was later advanced to first runner-up when her predecessor was unable to fulfill her duties.

Graduating this spring as a registered nurse from SUU, Stevens decided on a second go at the title after friends and family told her she had a legitimate shot at the crown.

“That’s why I went back, because people believed in me,” said Stevens. “There was such good competition, I knew I needed to work hard.”

Adding to the suspense of the evening, when the field was narrowed down to ten finalists, Stevens’ name was announced ninth. And when the group was pared down to five, Stevens was the fifth one called.

“These are some stellar girls,” added Stevens, modestly. “I did my best, but I left it in the Lord’s hands.”

Stevens is a combat veteran, having served as a medic on an 18-month tour in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom with the 1-211th in 2004-05.

As an example of her ability to respond on short notice as a Guard member, she was a last-minute fill-in for the Full Nelson team, composed entirely of Utah National Guard members, which competed in the Wasatch Back Relay on June 22-23. Her team finished seventh overall and second in the Open Mixed (men and women) Division. And she did that just one week prior to the Miss Utah competition.

“Jill Stevens is a wonderful ambassador for the Guard. Obviously she is bright and attractive, but most important, she’s a terrific Soldier,” said Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard.

Stevens will compete in the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas in January 2008.

Deseret News
Jill Stevens can look like a tough and gritty soldier one day and a beauty queen the next.
As a sergeant in the Utah National Guard, she’s a combat medic who spent a year in Afghanistan patching up injured troops back in 2004 and 2005.
This past Friday, the 24-year-old self-described “electric” person, nicknamed “Smiles,” was crowned Miss Utah.
“It’s still settling in,” Stevens said on the phone Monday.
Last year Stevens competed as Miss Southern Utah University in the Miss Utah Scholarship Pageant, finishing as second runner-up. In May she graduated from SUU with a degree in nursing. Last February the Kaysville resident was crowned Miss Davis County before being named Miss Utah last week.
Stevens said she plans to use the $10,000 scholarship prize for her master’s degree toward a career as a nurse practitioner in the emergency medicine field.
The new title was yet another surprise coming from the middle child of five siblings who have grown up in a musical family, with a mother who is a member of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
When Stevens joined the Guard just before graduating from Davis High School in 2001, her family was surprised then. Stevens said joining the military was reflective of who she was — full of energy, someone with a sense of adventure. Her family eventually understood.
“I love challenges,” she said. “I love trying new things.”
One challenge last week was having to don a swimsuit for the pageant when her normal uniform is camouflage fatigues.
“Everyone knows that in a pageant that’s part of it,” she said, with one caveat: “I think there’s better ways to showcase fitness.”
A nine-time marathon finisher, Stevens said she’d rather compete in a triathlon as part of the fitness portion of the pageant. The swimsuit competition reminded her how she’s more muscular than skinny as a result of lugging around rucksacks that weigh as much as 70 pounds while training with the Guard.
Oh, and being attractive in the Army has meant Stevens gets attention from some of the male soldiers. She used the words “hit on.”
“It teaches you to stand your ground,” Stevens said. “You have to be blunt with soldiers.”
With her chutzpah and others looking out for her, Stevens said she has had “no troubles.”

Deseret News - Utahn won Afghani smiles
hough there were some raised eyebrows in the Stevens family when she joined the Utah National Guard right out of Davis High School, Stevens has their full support.
“I love challenges,” she said. “How could I not do this? It’s just another chance to serve my country.”
A nursing student at Southern Utah University, Stevens’ yearlong tour in Afghanistan with the 211th Aviation Group set her back in school. In fact, she had to start all over.

But “I don’t regret going in the least because I got to see what we’re actually doing over there,” she said.
Stevens believes the U.S. presence in Afghanistan has made a difference, too. The country now has a democratic government and a president.
“It’s like when you find something that works for you, you want to share it with other people. I think that’s what we’re doing in Afghanistan,” she said.
The treatment of women, though, is something that bothers Stevens. She noticed on her humanitarian missions that they were pushed to the background. Men brought the children out while the wives were required to stay in their houses.
An avid runner with seven marathons under her belt, Stevens thought about those oppressed women during her training runs around the mine-filled perimeter of Bagram Air Base.
“It was probably a little foolish of me, but nothing was going to get in the way of my running,” she said.
And she did it because, unlike Afghani women, she has the freedom to run.
On Dec. 12, 2004, Stevens joined more than 200 other soldiers and civilians (no Afghani women) in Afghanistan’s first marathon at Firebase Ripley, a remote camp near Tirin Kot in central Uruzgan province.
The 26.2-mile race consisted of five laps around a bumpy 5.29-mile course, facing high altitude as well as the threat of attack. Stevens felt good for the first three laps but tightened on the fourth. The thought of those women kept her going.
“It was like an energizer,” said Stevens, who ended up the top woman finisher with a time of 3 hours, 45 minutes. “I was kind of doing it for them because I know one day they’ll be able to do something like this.”

Additional:
Pageant News Bureau