Theresa Vail: From Army to Miss America to the Outdoor Channel

U.S. Army sergeant Theresa Vail had to change her talent from archery to singing when she competed as Miss Kansas in the Miss America pageant in 2013. “I guess the Miss America organization has an insurance clause against projectile objects,” she told FOX411 before she hit the stage. Vail’s new employer has no such qualms. The Outdoor Channel has brought the buff beauty on to host a new show, “Limitless,” where she hunts with her crossbow while tackling other feats of strength and skill.

Vail told the Wichita Eagle that half of each show will be hunting, and the other half a personal challenge.“I told them I didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing and they said they didn’t either,” she said. “We both wanted it to have more than just me on hunts. I was sold from there on.” For example, during a New Mexico elk hunt, she will also hang out with the state’s Smoke Jumper fire fighters. “You have 100 pounds of gear on, and you’re running up and down buildings carrying people in a fireman’s carry,” she said. “It’s going to be pretty tough, but I thrive on things like that.”
Vail, 23, is used to pushing boundaries. In addition to being one of the few serving armed forces members to compete in the Miss America pageant, she was also the first contestant to openly show her tattoos. “We’re placed under certain convictions and we feel we have to stay under them and I want people to know, it doesn’t matter what society says. It doesn’t matter what the quote, unquote rules say,” she told us. “You can do whatever you want, whatever you set your mind to, that’s what I did when I showed my tattoos.” In addition to her new show, Vail remains a sergeant in the Kansas National Guard, having reinlisted in 2013 for six years, and still plans to pursue a graduate degree in dentistry.

Making the rest of us look pretty lazy indeed.