MoonSylver
19-Nov-2009, 04:48 AM
Thought the UK members in particular might appreciate this
From the Daily Mail online:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1225912-071E90AF000005DC-955_233x448.jpg
Corporal Katrina Hodge was sitting in her barracks in Surrey wearing regulation combats, hair scraped back and face devoid of make-up, when the telephone rang.
The call was from the organiser of the Miss England competition, offering her the title. The previous holder, Rachel Christie, had been involved in an alleged nightclub brawl the week before and forced to stand down.
As runner-up in the contest last July, Katrina was the natural successor. She is due to register as Miss England today and will fly out to South Africa on Tuesday in preparation for the Miss World competition.
Katrina has accepted the challenge with the same staunch enthusiasm she showed when she was deployed to Iraq for seven months. She is nothing if not a trooper; it is just that she happens to regard skimpy frocks and a suntan as highly as serving on the front line.
Known to her Army colleagues as Combat Barbie, Katrina, 22, has stunned the military and modelling worlds alike with her determination to combine the two.
'I like the fact I can come to work with no make-up on and roll around in mud,' she says. 'But I like being glamorous and girlie as well. Becoming Miss England is a dream come true. But I'm not just representing the country. I'm representing the British Army.'
Katrina has spent the past two days making the transformation from corporal to Miss World contestant and will travel to the airport from her base in Frimley Park, Surrey.
'I was in Army mode with no nails when I found out,' she says. 'I don't have any swimsuits or day wear. I'm going to have to run into a shop and grab every size eight dress they have.'
A self-confessed 'girlie girl' who loved the colour pink and dancing, and dreamed of becoming a soap star, Katrina was dared by her older brother Bryan, 25, who is now a butcher, to join the Army when she left school at 16.
Rachel Christie as Miss England with Katrina Hodge
'He was in the Army and joked I would never be strong enough,' she says. 'I went initially to prove him wrong. By week three, I absolutely loved it.'
When she had completed training, Katrina joined the Royal Anglian Regiment, turning up to her barracks in Winchester, Hampshire, wearing kitten heels and false eyelashes, and wheeling pink suitcases.
'No sooner had I walked in than the corporal turned round and said, "It's Combat Barbie!"' says Katrina, who now has a Barbie sign on her bed-room in her barracks. 'The name stuck. I really don't mind, although I did dye my hair brunette because I got sick of all the blonde jokes.'
Her father Jim and mother Ann live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. 'Mum thought it was a joke at first because I am so girlie, but she is very proud,' says Katrina, who refuses to say if she has a boyfriend.
When Katrina was 18 she was posted to Iraq as one of only ten women in the Royal Anglians.
'I took my hair straighteners and mascara. It didn't mean I couldn't look nice,' she says.
While she and comrades from her unit, the 1st Battalion, were taking a suspected rebel fighter back to base near Basra, their vehicle crashed. When the prisoner grabbed two rifles, Katrina wrestled them from him and restrained him with her bare hands. 'For a moment I thought I was going to die,' she says.
Her commanding officer rewarded her bravery with a commendation to go along with the Iraq Medal she received for her tour of duty, and she was promoted to corporal.
The original Miss England winner, Rachel Christie, 21, is a heptathlete and the niece of Olympic sprinter Linford Christie.
She is alleged to have hit fellow beauty queen Sara Jones at a Manchester nightclub last Monday during a row over a boyfriend. Rachel, who is hoping to compete in the 2012 Olympics, was arrested on suspicion of assault and released on bail.
'Rachel is a good friend of mine and I feel sorry for her,' says Katrina. 'It sounds very out of character.'
Nonetheless, it is Katrina who will fly to Johannesburg in preparation for the pageant that will take place on December 12. She was offered a modelling contract with lingerie firm La Senza this summer and wants to carry on serving in the Army for the foreseeable future - even if she ends up winning Miss World.
'I am hard-working and will make sure I can commit to the two,' she says. 'I want to break down the boundaries.'
http://northshorejournal.org/LinkedImages/2008/07/1katrinahodge.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/07/19/article-1036575-02009B0700000578-909_468x719.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/07/article-1211677-064F36E9000005DC-571_224x423_popup.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1225912/Combat-Barbie-Soldier-new-Miss-England-Linford-Christies-niece-hands-crown-nightclub-brawl.html
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1225912-071DEB4F000005DC-906_468x636.jpg
From the Daily Mail online:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1225912-071E90AF000005DC-955_233x448.jpg
Corporal Katrina Hodge was sitting in her barracks in Surrey wearing regulation combats, hair scraped back and face devoid of make-up, when the telephone rang.
The call was from the organiser of the Miss England competition, offering her the title. The previous holder, Rachel Christie, had been involved in an alleged nightclub brawl the week before and forced to stand down.
As runner-up in the contest last July, Katrina was the natural successor. She is due to register as Miss England today and will fly out to South Africa on Tuesday in preparation for the Miss World competition.
Katrina has accepted the challenge with the same staunch enthusiasm she showed when she was deployed to Iraq for seven months. She is nothing if not a trooper; it is just that she happens to regard skimpy frocks and a suntan as highly as serving on the front line.
Known to her Army colleagues as Combat Barbie, Katrina, 22, has stunned the military and modelling worlds alike with her determination to combine the two.
'I like the fact I can come to work with no make-up on and roll around in mud,' she says. 'But I like being glamorous and girlie as well. Becoming Miss England is a dream come true. But I'm not just representing the country. I'm representing the British Army.'
Katrina has spent the past two days making the transformation from corporal to Miss World contestant and will travel to the airport from her base in Frimley Park, Surrey.
'I was in Army mode with no nails when I found out,' she says. 'I don't have any swimsuits or day wear. I'm going to have to run into a shop and grab every size eight dress they have.'
A self-confessed 'girlie girl' who loved the colour pink and dancing, and dreamed of becoming a soap star, Katrina was dared by her older brother Bryan, 25, who is now a butcher, to join the Army when she left school at 16.
Rachel Christie as Miss England with Katrina Hodge
'He was in the Army and joked I would never be strong enough,' she says. 'I went initially to prove him wrong. By week three, I absolutely loved it.'
When she had completed training, Katrina joined the Royal Anglian Regiment, turning up to her barracks in Winchester, Hampshire, wearing kitten heels and false eyelashes, and wheeling pink suitcases.
'No sooner had I walked in than the corporal turned round and said, "It's Combat Barbie!"' says Katrina, who now has a Barbie sign on her bed-room in her barracks. 'The name stuck. I really don't mind, although I did dye my hair brunette because I got sick of all the blonde jokes.'
Her father Jim and mother Ann live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. 'Mum thought it was a joke at first because I am so girlie, but she is very proud,' says Katrina, who refuses to say if she has a boyfriend.
When Katrina was 18 she was posted to Iraq as one of only ten women in the Royal Anglians.
'I took my hair straighteners and mascara. It didn't mean I couldn't look nice,' she says.
While she and comrades from her unit, the 1st Battalion, were taking a suspected rebel fighter back to base near Basra, their vehicle crashed. When the prisoner grabbed two rifles, Katrina wrestled them from him and restrained him with her bare hands. 'For a moment I thought I was going to die,' she says.
Her commanding officer rewarded her bravery with a commendation to go along with the Iraq Medal she received for her tour of duty, and she was promoted to corporal.
The original Miss England winner, Rachel Christie, 21, is a heptathlete and the niece of Olympic sprinter Linford Christie.
She is alleged to have hit fellow beauty queen Sara Jones at a Manchester nightclub last Monday during a row over a boyfriend. Rachel, who is hoping to compete in the 2012 Olympics, was arrested on suspicion of assault and released on bail.
'Rachel is a good friend of mine and I feel sorry for her,' says Katrina. 'It sounds very out of character.'
Nonetheless, it is Katrina who will fly to Johannesburg in preparation for the pageant that will take place on December 12. She was offered a modelling contract with lingerie firm La Senza this summer and wants to carry on serving in the Army for the foreseeable future - even if she ends up winning Miss World.
'I am hard-working and will make sure I can commit to the two,' she says. 'I want to break down the boundaries.'
http://northshorejournal.org/LinkedImages/2008/07/1katrinahodge.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/07/19/article-1036575-02009B0700000578-909_468x719.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/09/07/article-1211677-064F36E9000005DC-571_224x423_popup.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1225912/Combat-Barbie-Soldier-new-Miss-England-Linford-Christies-niece-hands-crown-nightclub-brawl.html
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1225912-071DEB4F000005DC-906_468x636.jpg