U.S Army Officer crowned ‘Miss USA’
Army Strong! The boots of a soldier in the U.S. military have made their way across the stage in one of the most watched competitions in America. The one to make that walk, is Deshauna Barber, a First Lieutenant, who is on her way to being promoted to Captain as logistics commander for the 988th Quartermaster Detachment Unit in Fort Meade. 1LT Barber, an Army Reserve officer and IT analyst from the District of Columbia has been crowned Miss USA 2016 after mounting a powerful statement of women serving in combat roles in the military.
YAAAAS QUEEN! #MissUSA pic.twitter.com/fmC1TYy02l
— Deshauna Barber (@MissUSA) June 6, 2016
“As a woman in the United States Army, I think it was an amazing job by our government to allow women to integrate into every branch of the military. We are just as tough as men. As a commander of my unit, I’m powerful, I am dedicated and it is important that we recognize that gender does not limit us in the United States.”
“Some of our veterans, they come back from deployment, or they go into combat, and they start dealing with those internal battles that a lot of us don’t see. My main thing is lowering the number of 22 suicides of veterans each and every day. That is my main platform in Washington, D.C., and now it’s wider on a global scale as Miss USA. I tell them that today, tomorrow, to focus on the next day and that your struggles will eventually fade away.”
Julia recently published her first novel, titled; Anomic. She is currently co-authoring a novel called ‘Snow Falls’. She has a B.A in Communications with concentrations in Professional Writing and Public Relations. She is also in the United States Army Reserves as a Military Police Officer, and is currently in the process of going back to school for her Masters Degree in Business. When she isn’t writing, she is co-owner of a film production studio called ‘Valentine Productions LLC’ and she frequently spends her weekends acting in films, or being a stuntwoman.