Profile of a winner: Emiley Steiger

Emiley Steiger is a winner.

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A Fairdale High School graduate is headed to basic training next month after losing the 85 pounds needed to join the military.

Emiley Steiger enlisted as an ammunition specialist and leaves for basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in July. She said she decided to join the Army after a military recruiter spoke at Fairdale High School in Spring 2009. Steiger said she weighed 213 pounds at the time and described weight as a constant struggle.

"I used to eat mayonnaise right out of the jar and had to quit," Steiger said. "I got a gym membership, quit eating fast food and stopped eating late at night."

The summer ahead of her senior year, the teenager decided to lose weight. Future Soldier Dottie Bussey worked beside her.

"Some days I go to the gym with her or we go to the park and run and I help her at her house with all the drill and ceremony stuff we have to do," Bussey said. "Grades too, I helped her with her grades."

Steiger described her decision as life-changing and challenging.

"I got tired of crying pretty much and even when I first started running, I was like 'Why did my mom make me like this? It's my mom's fault! It's her fault!'"

Steiger said she currently weighs 130 pounds. Bussey said she has lost 52 pounds since the two started working together.

In this day and age, when so many young people sit around and insist that the rest of us owe them a living, or cry because life is so hard (even though they have it easier than us older generations ever did), it's great to see someone willing to work so hard to achieve a goal, especially a goal as noble as being allowed to serve this great country.

Way to go, Emiley. I'm sure that you'll do the Army--and America--proud.

Salute.