Patricia Northrup is an American

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

titleholder who was crowned

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the Mi ...

in 1992. She holds a bachelor of science in Aeronautical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University. She joined the

California Air National Guard The California Air National Guard (CA ANG) is one of three components of the California National Guard, a reserve of the United States Air Force, and part of the National Guard of the United States. As militia units, the units in the California ...

as a pilot and retired as a lieutenant colonel. While in the air national guard, she flew 75 combat missions during four deployments in Iraq and received three

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

s. She is also a commercial pilot for

American Airlines American Airlines is a major airlines of the United States, major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the world when measured ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Recipients of the Air Medal American beauty pageant winners Aviators from California California National Guard personnel California Polytechnic State University alumni Miss America 1993 delegates Female officers of the United States Air Force Women in the Iraq War Commercial aviators {{US-pageant-bio-stub American women commercial aviators National Guard (United States) officers