Miss National Sweetheart Wendy Martin, a human resources and education freshman from Alaska, feels as comfortable in combat boots as she does in a ball gown.
Martin, who now attends the University and is part of LSU’s ROTC program, first decided to compete in pageants as a 14-year-old. Although her family did not support her decision initially, Martin said she set out to prove it wasn’t just a beauty competition.
“At first, I gave my sister a hard time because the only pageantry I had really ever witnessed when she first started was the stuff you see on TV, like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras,’” her sister Megan Martin said.
Despite her family’s skepticism, Wendy Martin persevered for two years before winning a crown.
“My first pageant was a local pageant for the Bear Paw Festival, and I won the community service award scholarship,” Wendy Martin said. “Every pageant that I did just left me thirsty for more; I wanted to be on that stage and be the winner.”
But Wendy Martin’s father still wanted her to be involved in ROTC. She said she grew up in Eagle River, Alaska, where “everybody is very pro-Second Amendment, and there are actually more caribou than people.”
“My dad told me that if I went to ROTC camp, I could get a new pageant gown,” Wendy Martin said. “So I went to camp and I hated it, but then I got the chance to fly in a Black Hawk, and that changed everything.”
After camp, she joined the Navy Junior ROTC at Chugiak High School in Chugiak, Alaska.
“I climbed through the ranks. From my sophomore year on up, I held many officer positions,” Wendy Martin said. “I went from the very bottom, from Most Improved Cadet, to commanding the entire camp.”
Wendy Martin said she planned on attending LSU before receiving the ROTC scholarship because her family also attended the University. She is one of seven freshmen on campus to receive the scholarship and plans to pursue her goal of flying Black Hawks.
“My passion is really to be a pilot,” Wendy Martin said. “I hope to stay in the U.S. Army until retirement.”
But Wendy Martin doesn’t want to give up on pageants and serving others through them. Her family has even grown to accept that she can do both.
“I go to every pageant I can and scream for her because she loves it,” Megan Martin said. “It would be so cool to see her achieve her dream of flying Black Hawks. The only part I’m not OK with is the possibility of her getting deployed.”
Wendy Martin said she does her best not to compare herself to the women she competes against in pageants.
“Everybody is there for different reasons, but we all want to get that crown,” Wendy Martin said. “I’m just going to be confident in who I am. I do think that my military aspirations set me apart from the group.”