A group of 13 women with over 100 years of military service between them are raising money for VA hospital programs with a 50s-style pin-up fashion calendar.
The 2025 Pin-Ups For Vets’ calendar features two Purple Heart recipients, an Army Lt. Colonel who served 39 months in Iraq on three deployments, and a 25-year Marine Corps veteran who lost their arm.
The calendar, in its fourth year, previously donated more than $120,000 to VA hospitals for new rehabilitation equipment. The 2025 calendar will raise funds for hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans who are ill, injured or homeless and deployed troops and military spouses.
The annual project is a nod to vintage pin-up posters that featured famous women like Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable popularized during WWII. The posters were also seen as a morale booster for soldiers during the war to “remind young men what they were fighting for,” as one WWII blog put it.
The women who were part of the 19th annual calendar also used it as a chance to embrace their feminine side.
Arely Elrod, a 13-year Army veteran and former construction equipment mechanic, said she wanted to join the project after she found herself in an identity crisis after her military separation.
“Being in a male-dominated field, I felt the need to suppress my femininity in order to be taken seriously,” Elrod said. “I neglected myself in ways that caused me to become self-conscious. Being able to correlate beauty, brains and bravery in a calendar full of amazing women that are selflessly wanting to give back is such an honor.”
Miracle Holthouser, a 10-year Air Force veteran who served as an operations analyst briefer, recalled one interaction when she was packing up her bags to ship off. “Their response was, ‘I don’t think women should do men’s jobs,’” she said.
Despite women being officially allowed to serve in combat positions since 2013, Holthouser sees the pin-up calendar as a way to combat the narrative that women can’t or shouldn’t serve in certain military occupations.
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“You can get dolled up and you can get dirty. You can be pretty, and you can be smart, and you can be brave, all at the same time,” Holthouse said. “I mean just look at the women in these calendars, they have accomplished so much.”
“These stellar veterans prove that brave is beautiful,” the group said in a release.
The 2025 calendars are available for purchase at PinUpsForVets.com.
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