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Cedar Rapids veteran featured as pin-up model to benefit Veterans Affairs
2024 calendar raises funds for hospitals, injured vets
Oct. 14, 2023 2:58 pm, Updated: Oct. 15, 2023 7:33 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids veteran is putting her uniform back on for another mission — but this one looks a little bit different from the one she wore in the U.S. Air Force.
For the 18th annual Pin-Ups for Vets calendar released this month, Sarah Lamp traded in her navy lapels and powder blue shirt for something a little more flowery: a black romper trimmed with white sleeves and polka-dotted with daisies. Donning lipstick as red as the car behind her and a yellow rose in her blonde, 1940s-style Victory curls, Lamp’s beaming smile is a new form of service.
Five years after she retired from her 15-year Air Force career, she wanted to serve again. So she answered the call of duty — this time, as a model for the 2024 calendar of a nonprofit that raises funds to support Veterans Affairs hospitals, ill and injured veterans, homeless veterans, deployed troops and military spouses.
“I missed being part of something bigger than myself,” Lamp said.
Starting as a satellite operator with the Third Space Operations Squadron at what is now the Shriever Space Force Base in Colorado, Lamp later went on to serve as a physicist for the military, where she wrote or executed contracts to support missions, including space missions.
Want to help?
You don’t have to be a model to contribute to the cause. 2024 calendars can be purchased online at pinupsforvets.com or by mailing a $17 check to: Pin-Ups For Vets, P.O. Box 33, Claremont, CA 91711.
This year’s calendar features 13 female veterans with a combined 150 years of service in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard.
After deploying as a NATO contracting officer in Afghanistan for six months, she returned to serve on offensive and defensive counterspace measures — defending the country in space.
But this mission on a photo shoot in Los Angeles was more personal. Twenty years after her father died, she got to honor the man who inspired her to join the military in a picture-perfect way.
Despite his love for the military, flat feet and poor eyesight kept her father from serving his country. The engineer worked as a mechanic on the side, restored military jeeps in army green fatigue jackets and black combat boots to support five children with whom he instilled an affinity for science and space.
By posing in front of vintage cars and holding wrenches, she got to pay homage to another one of his favorite things.
“My dad worked as engineer and was also a car mechanic on the side to make money for five kids. In that way, the picture that's in the calendar is an ode to my dad a little bit,” Lamp said. "I’m an engineer right now, so I got to pretend to be a mechanic.“
Pin-Ups for Vets founder Gina Elise started the nonprofit in 2006 as stories about troops returning from Iraq with traumatic injuries inundated news cycles, compelling her to find ways to help.
“I am an ‘action’ person. I can’t just sit back when I feel like something can be done to improve a situation,” Elise said.
With a love for World War II era pin-up art that was used to boost troop morale, she found a new way to stand up for her country. Using models dressed to replicate the pin-up style, her photos have helped donate more than $100,000 to purchase new rehabilitation equipment for Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide. Volunteers ship morale-boosting care packages to deployed troops and tour VA hospitals in all 50 states, where ambassadors have visited more than 16,000 ill and injured veterans and delivered gifts of appreciation.
“A lot of the patients we visit start to cry because they are so moved that people are thinking of them. May of the veterans, especially the Vietnam-era vets, did not get a warm welcome upon their return home,” Elise said. “It means so much to our vets to know that we appreciate them.”
For many of the female veterans who serve as models, it also allows them to embrace their femininity again after getting out of the military.
While Lamp may not get “all dolled up,” she likes to do her hair and put on some makeup for her own self-esteem. But in the Air Force, your hair style and outfit choices were made for you.
At times, she could slip in a little rebellion into her all-navy aesthetic. Early in her service, she had a small streak of pink in her hair that was only visible when it was down.
But after studying the hardest subject she could think of for her bachelor’s degree, the physicist’s military service showed her the stuff she was made of.
“You had to ignore your femininity and focus on the mission,” Lamp said. “There wasn’t a huge focus for me on feeling suppressed or not. I tried to focus on what we were there to do.”
She says it’s important to continue to give back, because no veteran deserves to feel alone or unsupported after they serve.
Elise said finding purpose again after serving the country is important, no matter the veteran.
“Their courage and determination to move forward with their lives, often after very serious injuries, is an inspiration to see,” Elise said. “We can all learn from their resilience.”
Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com
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