At first it was the fashion of the ’40s and ’50s, but it became the Pin-Ups for Vets mission that attracted Danielle Vizzone-Bierwirth.

The Peyton resident was selected as one of 13 female veterans across the U.S. to be styled as a WWII pin-up model for next year’s calendar, which helps support veterans and U.S. troops. Vizzone-Bierwirth, a combat veteran, served six years as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and is now a civilian and reservist special agent with the office at the Air Force Academy.

Vizzone-Bierwirth also will serve as an ambassador for the nonprofit Pin-Ups for Vets and visit hospitalized veterans at VA hospitals around the country.

“They support hospitalized vets, deployed troops and do charity work for vets,” Vizzone-Bierwirth said. “As a service member, that was near and dear to my heart.”

Hundreds of women apply every year to be featured in the calendar. For Vizzone-Bierwirth’s photo she flew to Manhattan Beach, Calif., where she was styled in a watermelon dress and given a parasol to carry as she represented the month of July.

The calendars are $17 and can be purchased online at pinupsforvets.com. They can also be bought for the care packages the nonprofit sends to deployed troops or to be passed out during ambassador trips to VA hospitals.

“So many amazing ladies step up to serve our country,” said Pin-Ups for Vets founder Gina Elise. “It’s so nice to spotlight them.”

Vizzone-Bierwirth knew she was Air Force bound at 7 when she saw her first F-117 stealth fighter at an air show. She even made a contract when she was 10 that she made her parents sign stating they would promise to make sure she joined the Air Force if she ever wavered on her dream. But she never did.

In 2017, she commissioned through ROTC at The University of Texas at Austin, while earning a bachelor’s in sociology. She was selected as a special agent and stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La.

For the next six years she investigated sexual assaults, homicides, drug-related crimes and child crimes. In 2019 she deployed to Afghanistan for nine months, where she worked in counterterrorism.

She was assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations 8th Field Investigations Region at Peterson Air Force Base in 2020, and during her time in the Pikes Peak region she’s earned a master’s in forensic psychology and is now working on a Ph.D. in neuropsychology with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder. She was diagnosed with PTSD after hypervigilance caused by her job and a traumatic incident at her base in Afghanistan.

“I was so impressed with her resume,” Elise said. “She’s had a really interesting Air Force career. I thought she’d make a great ambassador.”

Elise founded her nonprofit in 2006, around the time she kept hearing U.S. troops returning from Iraq needed better medical care. As a fan of the nose art during World War II, when planes were painted with beautiful pin-up models to boost the morale of troops, she decided to carry the concept into modern day and help raise money to buy and donate rehab equipment to VA hospitals.

When the ladies in her calendars dress up and hand deliver calendars to VA hospitals, the veterans are often shocked.

“They are so surprised the ladies visiting them are vets,” Elise said. “Sometimes they start to cry because they’re so moved they’re getting recognition and appreciation. The vet to vet bond is important for healing. A lot of vets don’t have visitors for weeks or months. To spend a little time with them and brighten their day can mean a lot.”