CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
An aerial combat photojournalist with the 1st Combat Camera Squadron here will be featured on the cover of a national professional women's magazine.
Staff Sgt. Stacy Pearsall's self portrait flying in a helicopter over Iraq in 2003 graces the front of the October issue of Pink, a magazine targeting women executives, professionals and business owners. The issue hits newsstands Tuesday.
"The photo is beautiful," said Jennifer Tyson, Pink art director. "It's definitely not the status quo for our magazine but we're thrilled to have a military member on our cover."
Sergeant Pearsall said she is humbled by all the attention.
"There are so many other great stories of how other women have done great things in the war and I feel honored that they would choose me for the cover," she said. "I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for the people who trained me. When people say great things about my images, all the credit goes to this unit and our efforts to be the best."
The editors at Pink said they decided on Sergeant Pearsall's photo for the cover because they found that military women and executives actually have a lot in common.
"I've always had a great respect for women who serve in the military," Mrs. Tyson said. "These women require intensity, bravery, selflessness and sacrifice, which are the same characteristics of women who do well professionally in the civilian world."
Sergeant Pearsall, along with other military women, is featured in an article titled, Women at War, where she tells her story of her Iraq deployment in 2003. She earned an Air Force Commendation Medal with Valor for heroism during a battle at Abu Ghraib and following the detonation of an improvised explosive device near a school.
Having an award-winning photojournalist as the subject of an article created issues for Mrs. Tyson that she normally doesn't have to deal with.
"We normally don't receive magazine quality images from the women we highlight in our stories," she said. "When I received Stacy's photos I was blown away. She is amazing. I really had a hard time selecting what images to use because we only had room for a few."
The magazine has a monthly circulation of more than 115,000.