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| Staff photos by Mike Spencer | ||
| Miss USA Chelsea Cooley talks with with Sgt. 1st Class Jerry Wolford, right, and other soldiers while visiting Fort Bragg on Tuesday. | ||
In the past year, Miss USA Chelsea Cooley has swum with dolphins, hobnobbed with celebrities and jetted around the country with Donald Trump in his very own gilded 747.
It has been a life-changing year for the Charlotte native, but she may have topped all of those experiences Tuesday morning. She jumped tandem with the U.S. Army Parachute Team, the Golden Knights, at Laurinburg-Maxton Airport.
“This by far is the coolest thing I’ve done,” Cooley said later in a dining hall on Fort Bragg.
“It was awesome. I could sit here and say the same five words to describe it over and over again.”
Her visit Tuesday was part of a two-day tour of North Carolina military bases coordinated by the North Carolina USO. Besides jumping with the Golden Knights, Cooley took part in weapons and combat simulations. On Monday, she visited Camp Lejeune.
When she was invited to jump with the Golden Knights, she eagerly accepted.
“How do you pass up an opportunity to do tandem with the Golden Knights?” she asked. “They’re the best of the best.”
Later Tuesday, Cooley ate with soldiers and signed autographs at the 3rd Brigade Dining Facility. Except for her sequined Miss USA sash, she wore casual dress: jeans, a red-and-white striped shirt and trendy brown suede boots. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she didn’t wear a tiara. But she stood out in a room full of men dressed in BDUs.
The soldiers were excited to meet her and pose for pictures.
“They just wanted to see her,” said Command Sgt. Major Donovan Watts of the 1st Battalion of the 505th Parachute Infantry Division. “They like girls. They jumped at the chance.”
Even the cooks, who are accustomed to making cakes for change-of-command ceremonies and dignitaries, were honored to make Cooley’s cake. They spelled out “Welcome Miss USA” in chocolate letters and confessed they felt a little more pressure to make it look good.
“We took a little bit of extra care and made sure it was a bit better than usual,” Spc. Justin Perez said.
Cooley is 22. She graduated from Independence High School in Charlotte and attended UNC-Charlotte for two years. She was a fashion marketing student at the Art Institute of Charlotte when she won Miss USA in April 2005. She is the first North Carolina contestant to win the pageant.
After she gives up the crown April 21 at the pageant, she plans to pursue a career in entertainment and acting. She already has an agent and is apartment hunting in New York.
“As a person, I’ve definitely become fearless,” she said, reflecting on the past year. “There was a lot of things as a kid I was afraid of and would never do. I went skydiving today. If I can do that, I can do anything in the future.”
TKPN
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