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Highest-Ranking Female Officer Killed in Iraq
December 12, 2006 4:31 PM
Correspondent David Kerley blogs:
UPDATED DEC 13 @ 6:15P ET: See below.
We heard about that deadly day in Iraq last week. Ten soldiers killed. Today, that news, those statistics, hit close to home. One of those who died was Marine Major Megan McClung. She was a public affairs officer (PAO), the highest-ranking female officer to be killed in Iraq. She was doing her job in Ramadi when she was killed by a roadside bomb. She had just dropped off a TV crew at the Government Center and a magazine correspondent at one of military’s operating posts and was heading back to the Ramadi airbase with an Army officer and a soldier, both of whom were also killed.
I just traveled those roads two months ago when I was in Ramadi. I had just worked with Major McClung.
Public Affairs is not a job that supposedly puts officers on the frontlines. But in Iraq there are no frontlines, so PAOs are at risk. One officer told me “she was one of the best -- could not stop her from going where the action was.”
I did not make McClung’s job any easier when I arrived with producer Auzzie Deen and photographer Bartley Price in the middle of the night back in late September. After a couple hours’ sleep we met McClung just before a briefing with her boss Col. Sean MacFarland. McClung had arrived in Ramadi just a couple days earlier. She still didn’t know her way around the base. The major had spent plenty of time “in theater” but that was in Fallujah.
We had come to Ramadi to see how the “clear, hold and build” strategy was working. The itinerary had us going to 4 water/sewer treatment plants and a ceramics factory. For our purposes, that’s too much of a good thing. We politely explained to the Colonel what we needed. He understood. But it fell on McClung to change the itinerary and set up some other activities with little notice. I don’t think she was happy, but she didn’t complain. McClung didn’t come out on patrol, or to the Government House with us (the insurgents fired a rocket at our convoy, but missed), but we did share a couple meals. She was pleasant, had a great smile, and seemed to enjoy talking to journalists… even a fellow redhead. I learned she was a gymnast when she was growing up and was a runner now. But she was really a Marine and proud of the Corps and her work.
At one of those water plants, I was with Lt. Col. John Church. He spoke at McClung’s memorial in Ramadi about how she “attacked life -- like she attacked entering a room.”
You could almost expect to hear, “Marine Major Megan Malia McClung coming in!” … “And with a helluva good attitude!” That is how she burst through a hatch. She could not just simply enter a room. She bounced and bounded in -- ready to meet anyone and anything with an optimistic tenacity that intimated some, but inspired many.
She was a warrior and that is why we love her, we honor her and we remember her today.
As another of McClung’s friends told me, she would not want to be remembered as the “highest ranking female to die in Iraq.” She would want to be remembered as a Marine who did her job.
UPDATED DEC 13 @ 6:15P ET: Thank you for noting the error in our blog. We said that Marine Major Megan McClung was the first female officer killed in Iraq. We have corrected that to say she was the highest ranking female officer to be killed in Iraq.
December 12, 2006 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (40)
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You have got the title wrong, it is indeed a horrible thing that this young lady was killed, but 1LT Emily Periz was a female officer and was killed in action in September of 2006.
Posted by: CPT(P) Partridge | Dec 12, 2006 7:26:56 PM
As we feel the lost of the 1st officer female. Please remember the over hundred ENLISTED females who have returned from this conflict injuried, crippled and with undiagnosed illness.
Posted by: jagmedic | Dec 12, 2006 7:41:45 PM
CNN needs to get their information correct. On 12 Sept 2006 US Army Officer LT Emily Perez was killed in action by an IED in Kifl, Iraq. LT Perez was the first woman graduate of West Point to be killed.
Posted by: A Soldier | Dec 12, 2006 7:52:41 PM
You're article title is incorrect. This officer was not the first female officer killed in Iraq. She may have been the first Marine officer killed. However, I know there have been female Army officers killed in Iraq. The immediate name that comes to mind came the local area - Capt Kimberly Hampton, pilot of a helicopter shot down early during the war.
Posted by: Richard | Dec 12, 2006 7:55:08 PM
IN WAR MANY OF THE BEST DIE YOUNG. I AM A MARINE OF 55 YEARS. MY WIFE, A MARINE 52 YEARS AGO, JOINS ME IN IN OUR GRIEF OVER THE DEATH OF THIS FINE YOUNG MARINE OFFICER.
Posted by: R J FINN MAJOR USMC RET | Dec 12, 2006 8:19:55 PM
Vietnam Deja Vu. Another dead warrior in an evil war brought by us to a once peaceful nation half a world away. Another person who foolishly chose to trust their lives to the American Military-Industrial Complex. What killed her wasn't a IED, it was her poor life-choice by signing up in the first place. Too bad she didn't consider what effect her violent death may have on her future prospects for a career or family, or what price her brain and cardiovascular system may have to pay for her work promoting American War Crimes. Don't Gush over her death when a 100 far more innocent Iraqi's die the same day. Please don't tell me when one Major McClung is dead, tell me when all of them are. It is a both a duty and a pleasure to be a traitor to a government ruled by evil men. It is bad enough to work for them, its just plain stupidity to die for them and their crimes. We do not defend ourselves by killing and enslaving others who have not threatened us. Not even if they have oil. I would ordinarily regard the senseless death of an attractive young redheaded woman as a tragedy if she hadn't been a mindless willing cog in a war machine bringing Taxpayer provided death to tens of thousands around the world. That I have no problem with.
Posted by: Geoff | Dec 12, 2006 8:43:59 PM
Semper Fi Major McClung,
For all that you have done. For protecting us all. WE WILL NOT FORGET YOU! All of our love and prayers go out to you and your family.
Posted by: Kyle J. Holewinski | Dec 12, 2006 9:23:14 PM
I'm really sorry about the Marine Major being killed. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you accorded all the soldiers that have died an article of that length and magnitude. I am sure their parents and family would like it as much as Major McClung's family does. I know that for every solder that has died had friends and family would tell you what a wonderful person they were, and what a good job they did. Why do you report about one person and not all of them? They are equally important.
Posted by: Karen | Dec 12, 2006 9:47:54 PM
Another waste of human life. I was just reading about FDR and how all his sons served with distinction in World War Two. All of them and there were four.
Now the next time Bush wants to make comparisons or anyone else there will be none until the Bush twins are serving in Iraq worried about loosing their lives instead of purses in South America.
Posted by: Kirktalon | Dec 12, 2006 10:15:11 PM
This is blog is incorrect. MAJ McClung is NOT the first female officer killed in Iraq. An outstanding Army Aviation female captain was killed in an OH-58D Kiowa crash caused by enemy ground fire near Fallujah in January of 2004
Posted by: Mark | Dec 12, 2006 10:25:48 PM
I believe this fine American woman officer was killed earlier....
---------------
Army 2nd Lt. Emily J.T. Perez, 23, of Texas; assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Sept. 12 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near her Humvee during combat operations in Kifl, Iraq.
Posted by: Walt | Dec 12, 2006 11:04:19 PM
The Army had a female Captain Killed in a Helicopter Crash in Iraq. I recommend you double check the headline
Posted by: S. Higgins | Dec 12, 2006 11:57:48 PM
And you call yourself a news correspondent. I googled this (below) in about 30 seconds. Sounds like you owe your readers (and your credibility) an apology.
Capt. Kimberly N. Hampton
27, of Easley, S.C.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 82nd Aviation Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed Jan. 2 when her OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopter was shot down by enemy ground fire in Fallujah, Iraq.
Posted by: s. Higgins | Dec 13, 2006 12:03:51 AM
This can't be true. There was a female West Point graduate killed earlier.
Posted by: spinoza | Dec 13, 2006 12:37:45 AM
I don't think that she was the first female officer killed in Iraq, maybe the highest ranking female officer, but I think that there was a west point grad female officer that was killed here also. ""Perez, a platoon leader, was killed while patrolling southern Iraq near Najaf on Sept. 12 when a roadside bomb exploded under her Humvee" And I think there was a female warrant officer that was killed in action over here too.
Maybe she was the first female Marine officer but not the first female officer
So as sad as it is to lose anyone in combat be it male or female, enlisted or officer it all end up the the same someone has loss a love one
Posted by: Charles | Dec 13, 2006 12:45:45 AM
Please correct your headline, you may be correct that Major McClung is the highest ranking female officer to be killed in Iraq. Despite the tragic loss of this Marine, she was not the first female officer killed in Iraq. Please see this link, with the text of the DOD press release included.
"The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2nd Lt. Emily J.T. Perez, 23, of Texas, died on Sept.12 of injuries sustained in Al Kifl, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near her HMMWV during combat operations. Perez was assigned to the 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
For further information related to this release, contact the 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office at (254) 287-0105."
Condolences to all of the families of our fallen sons and daughters. You are in my thoughts and prayers, as are those brave men and women who are still there.
LC
Posted by: Larry Carter | Dec 13, 2006 12:51:46 AM
Unless I misunderstood your article, this reference to first female officer is very inaccurate. See the link.
Posted by: Colin | Dec 13, 2006 1:05:38 AM
What an awful waste. You did your job major, well done.
Now, just look up the chain of command at all those who did not do their job.
Posted by: Bihjimm | Dec 13, 2006 1:15:36 AM
With all due respect, this Major, God Bless her soul, was not the first female officer to die in Iraq. She may very well be the highest ranking. However, Army Second Lieutenant Emily Perez died on or about September 26, 2006. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, she was 23 and a native of Prince George's County, Maryland -- a suburb of Washington, D.C.
Posted by: DC Mac | Dec 13, 2006 1:58:33 AM
Second Lt. Emily Perez was killed on Sept. 12
Posted by: Mike Mitchell | Dec 13, 2006 8:46:35 AM
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