A former U.S. Army Captain, Rachel Washburn served six years on active duty as an Intelligence Officer, deploying twice to Afghanistan; first as a member of the pioneer Cultural Support Team (CST) and second as an Intelligence Platoon Leader. As a member of the CST program, Washburn was one of the first women selected to train and deploy with Special Operation teams to Afghanistan. On her CST deployment, she spent nine months living in a remote village in Southern Afghanistan with a Special Forces team, training local security forces, engaging with the female population, and conducting more than 100 combat operations all before the ban on women serving in combat had been lifted. Following her combat tours, Washburn was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Combat Action Badge.
"I was coming in during a time when certain jobs were not available to women, yet we wanted to prove ourselves, serve at the tip of the spear, and have the greatest impact to the mission but, legally we were not allowed to serve in those roles." said Washburn, who is the Eagles' nominee for the NFL's 2026 Salute to Service Award.
"Despite this, for centuries women have been serving in this capacity, but not getting the recognition because culturally and legally we were limited on what we could acknowledge. I joined the military at a time when the tactical and strategic needs required women to be integrated into Special Operations' missions and at the forefront of combat, yet no one knew what we were contributing."
During her time in the military, Washburn dealt with barriers to entry, recognition, and operations. Now, she works to help veterans overcome barriers in employment.
After returning from her second deployment in Afghanistan as an Intelligence Platoon Leader, Washburn was stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia. She continued her passion for addressing global security and instability by acting as a regional director for a relief organization before accepting her current role at Academy Securities in 2017, a veteran-owned investment bank. The social mission of Academy Securities is to train, hire, and mentor post-9/11 veterans.
"Working in Financial Services, it's a very challenging industry for veterans to network into," Washburn said. "Veterans don't have a conventional pathway to Wall Street and are often coming in a little bit older, post-service, than an analyst who would go through a traditional banking pipeline. Academy Securities, where I work, provides veterans with non-traditional backgrounds access to networks and career opportunities in financial services. We are 50 percent veteran-staffed and 100 percent veteran-owned. We open our entire business network to veterans, whether they join our organization or go on to do great things within the industry away from our firm. We sponsor them, train them, and give these veterans access to a hard-to-network-into industry."
From balancing her Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) duties with being an Eagles Cheerleader, to serving in combat tours for the United States Army, to being honored as the Eagles' Hometown Hero, and now one of 32 league-wide nominees for the NFL's 2026 Salute to Service Award, Washburn's journey has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Growing up with a father, Lon, on active military duty, Washburn's family moved frequently during her childhood before finally settling in Philadelphia. Drawn by her familiarity with the military, Washburn enrolled in the ROTC program at Drexel University.
"It was sort of the family business," Washburn said about joining the ROTC. "It was something I was always open to, but I went into my ROTC contract a little bit naive. It was a way to pay for college, and I knew that I was going to like being challenged – waking up early, the physical challenges, and developing a sense of grit"
Washburn was always an athlete. She found a love for dance after growing up as a competitive gymnast, earning a spot on the Drexel Dance Team. Balancing college academics, ROTC, and dance was already a massive commitment, but Washburn still took on the challenge to audition for a highly competitive spot on the Eagles Cheerleaders. She made the squad and proudly represented the team for three seasons between 2007-10 while she was at Drexel.
"I was just so in love with the City of Philadelphia and I saw the Philadelphia Eagles as this incredible sense of pride for the city, and I thought there was no greater place to take my love of dance and performing than to audition for the Eagles Cheerleaders," Washburn said. "I always wanted to pursue things that were outside of my comfort zone that I knew would require the absolute most of me. The Eagles Cheerleaders and ROTC were those things for me."
As an Eagles Cheerleader, she was selected to travel to Iraq and Kuwait in 2008 as part of the organization's annual participation in goodwill military tours, spending two weeks providing support to over 1,000 U.S. service members.
"We spent a lot of time on Blackhawks and CH - 47s trying to visit as many soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen who were deployed," Washburn said. "Some of them hadn't seen their families, hadn't touched American soil, hadn't had a connection to home in well over 12 months. So, to be able to bring a little bit of home to the Middle East was a huge honor. It was kind of a daunting honor at the time. That was the experience that brought everything very close to home, made everything feel real, and helped me grow up a lot."
Part of both the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders Alumni Associations, she is still involved with the Eagles Cheerleaders as an ambassador.
"It's been 16 years since I put on an Eagles Cheerleader uniform, yet I still very much in my bones feel like I'm a part of that organization," Washburn said. "Every day I get to represent what it means to be a Philadelphia Eagles fan, what it means to be an alumna of that organization when I'm out in the world meeting people and trying to make an impact and my community better, whether in a big way or in a little way."
The former U.S. Army Captain has collaborated with the Eagles Cheerleaders on community outreach, notably pairing up with Waves for Water, a nonprofit dedicated to providing clean water to communities in need.
"The opportunity to do an international community service initiative with the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders in conjunction with Waves for Water was this beautiful full-circle moment for me to combine my old life with my new life." Washburn said.
What Washburn didn't know was that her story would inspire another service member to join the Eagles Cheerleaders.
At the age of 17, Emma Conrad enlisted with the Delaware National Guard. In many ways, her path to the military and the Eagles Cheerleaders mirrored Washburn – Conrad grew up in a military family and enrolled on a scholarship to the University of Delaware's ROTC program. For Conrad, her love for dance became her bridge into military service. She would see her Army recruiter frequently as they both taught at the same dance studio.
"How incredible that a woman was part of Emma's path to joining the military," Washburn said of Conrad. "Because 20 years ago, those worlds may not have crossed paths.
"Their stories are so important, their bravery so significant, and it is so meaningful to have their service, their bravery, and their courage recognized by a grateful nation. And if by telling Emma's story and my story, that there are deeply competent women who are serving proudly and bravely, I think that's a very powerful testament to how America has so much talent and that everyone can contribute in a meaningful way if given the opportunity," Washburn added.
Despite her already demanding schedule of ROTC, classes, and night shifts at the University of Delaware's Police Department, Conrad wanted to return to dance. However, she didn't know if anybody had balanced military service with being an NFL cheerleader. That's when she googled the Eagles Cheerleaders and learned of Washburn's story.
"I was really nervous about all of it," Conrad told Washburn earlier this month. "You were a huge inspiration of why I even auditioned in the first place.
"You served in combat, you were an Eagles Cheerleader, you were an inspiration in a time when it was significantly more difficult for women in the military."
Women like Conrad are the reason why Washburn is so motivated to tell her story. In her own words, it is easy to minimize the contribution of a cheerleader, but Washburn's time with the Eagles Cheerleaders turned her into the leader and woman she is today.
"We represent the organization. There are so many incredible professional women who spend all day working, spend all day in school, then they have their second job, they go to practice in the evening. When I think about some of the biggest leadership lessons I learned as a young person, it is from my time at the Eagles. There are women that I look up to that I cheered alongside that represented servant leadership in the same ways I experienced in the Army. Their example transformed who I was as a person and a professional in many of the same ways as the military," Washburn said.
"We cannot minimize the impact of having such high value, highly competent women among the squad. It was deeply transformational to me as a growing young woman and as a leader. The captains on my team, I still think about them when I'm thinking about how I can make an impact to people that I work with and that work under me."
Thirteen years after women were permitted in combat roles, the visibility of female servicemen and veterans remains limited. Washburn is the only female veteran nominated for the 2026 Salute to Service Award.
"I feel like I am accepting this honor in service of all the women who've put on a uniform, both those uniforms, and by telling my story, I'm telling their story. That is genuinely the thing that moves me through this world," Washburn said.
