The Highest-Ranking Female Marine and First Female Annapolis Graduate to be Killed in Action

Speaker 1: And we continue with our American stories. The word hero has been much misused in our present culture. Heroes are people who put themselves in jeopardy and do it for the benefit of others. Megan McClung certainly fits that description. Here to tell her story is Tom Cilio, author of Be Bold: How a Marine Corps Hero Broke Barriers for Women at War. Let’s take a listen.

Speaker 2: I first stumbled on Megan’s story during a walk through Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, which is where so many post-9/11 fallen heroes now rest. And what really caught my eye as I walked through that solemn, sacred ground was six war words on Megan’s white headstone. They said, “Be bold, be brief, be gone.” And of course, it had her awards and her branch, the United States Marine Corps, and the dates of her birth and death. So, you know, when I took the Metro back to my dad’s house in Vienna, Virginia, the first thing I wanted to do is find out who she was and what those words meant. And that was way back in 2010, and I’ve had the honor of a lifetime to write a book about Megan and kind of answer some of those questions that first popped into my mind on that day at Arlington National Cemetery.

So, Megan McClung was born in Hawaii in 1972. She was the daughter of Reid McClung and Captain Mike McClung Sr., who served in Vietnam during the Ted Defense of. He was also a Marine Corps officer. Both her grandfathers also served our nation in World War II. But, you know, one of the earliest stories that Megan’s mom, Reid, told me, as we started to, you know, discuss the book and discuss Megan’s life, was that she said at a very young age to her mom that, “I don’t think there’s a glass ceiling or anything limiting me from what I can become, just because I’m a girl.” Reid tried to explain to young Megan at the time, you know, that there are certain things that women haven’t done yet, and they weren’t just talking about the military, just in general. And Megan said, “Well, Mom, there’s only a glass ceiling if you can see it, and I don’t see one.” And her mom explained this to me that, you know, she didn’t set out to be a trailblazer. She just did not want anything to stop her from reaching her goals. You know, one of the examples that really brought that home for me was, you know, Megan at the very beginning of high school. Her family settled down, by the way, after she was born in Hawaii. They eventually settled down in Mission Viejo, California, and right in the beginning of high school, there was a weightlifting class that Megan wanted to enroll in, and there was a sign that said, “No girls allowed.” And Megan said, “Well, what do you mean, no girls allowed? That’s not okay with me.” So her parents didn’t even know this until after the fact, but she went straight to the school board meeting and argued her case for why she should be allowed to be in that weightlifting class, and she won. She was admitted to the class, and she really impressed the guys in the class, too, and I think many of them couldn’t keep up with her. But, you know, from a very young age, she was athletic. She participated in gymnastics at a very high level from a very young age. But, you know, as she grew up and she became very focused on, you know, serving her country in the military like her father did, she spoke to her father. They had a very close bond. You know, we’re back in, you know, 1989, 1990, and, you know, there was one thing that really struck me. One of her friends from high school told me about when Megan was really starting to get serious about going to one of the service academies. She wanted to be a fighter pilot, and she was looking at both the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy, and her friend said to her, “You know, hey, Megan, isn’t this dangerous? You know, we always watched the movie Top Gun together, and Goose dies in that movie, and so do other characters, and, you know, this is real life. Like, aren’t you afraid of what could happen to you?” And Megan responded and said, “We’re all going to die. I’d rather die in the battlefield.” And again, this is a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old high school student talking. So she wrote, she wrote an essay for, you know, admission to the Naval Academy. She said, “I have several long-range goals for my life. The primary goal is to be a military officer. I would like the opportunity to become a career officer in an aviation field. To conclude, I believe that I would be an asset to the military and a strong leader. I hope that the Academy will recognize my strengths and select me for an appointment to Annapolis. There I can pursue my desire to honorably serve my country.” And that was in the year November 19, 1989. So, you know, it seemed like, you know, with her drive, and, you know, she had solid grades and a family history of serving, that she would have been a shoo-in for the Naval Academy. But she actually, her application was denied, which was probably the first big setback in Megan’s life and in her career. But as her mom told me, Megan would always say, “We don’t give up. We find another way.” So what Megan decided to do instead was apply to a preparatory military academy, and she was accepted as the first female cadet in the history of that school. So she went to Toms River, New Jersey, and began her year at Admiral Farragut Academy with a goal of, you know, if I can impress my commanding officers here and get good grades, that maybe the Naval Academy will give me another shot. And she had a lot of challenges there. She was, you know, competing against the boys, but also never wanting to make excuses or say, “Well, I can’t compete at this level because I’m a female.” She never did that. She just tried her best and tried to keep up, and she did, and in many cases, she went far beyond her male classmates. So she also tried out, I think it was during a summer break, in a fighter pilot program and realized that she couldn’t handle the G-force. So she knew that she would not be up in the air if she joined the military and would have to find a different track. I think that’s when she started to look at the Marine Corps versus the Navy. So anyway, in 1990, she was accepted to the Naval Academy, one of only five students at Admiral Farragut Academy to be admitted, and she officially became a member of the Naval Academy Class of 1995. Obviously, a huge moment and a proud moment in her life and for her dad and her mom and everybody and her family. So Megan goes to Annapolis and gets started and quickly realizes how difficult of an environment it would be for her, not just because she was a female, but the academic rigors. Along with competing in gymnastics, she also started to have some injuries and physical challenges. And at the end of the day, she graduated 1995 and became a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. So I found a journal that Megan kept and also a book full of quotes that meant a lot for her, and early on after she joined the Marine Corps, she wrote this on a notecard. It said, “I joined the Marine Corps to support my country and will go where needed. I’m proud to serve as a U.S. Marine, and I’m ready to do whatever is needed to support the American people and our interests.” I think another thing that really fascinated me about Megan’s journey and the journey of anyone who joined the military in those days: they had no idea what was coming around the corner. That on graduation day in 1995, six short years later, America would be attacked, and life as really all of us knew it, but particularly those who served in the military, would change in ways they never could have imagined.

Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to author Tom Cilio tell the story of Megan McClung. “There’s only a glass ceiling if you see one.” Megan told her mom about doing things that, well, women generally weren’t thought to do back when she was young. She was focused, like her dad, on a career in the military, and her grandfathers both served in World War II. Her father was a Marine and served in Vietnam. He went to prep school, and the very next year, she was at Annapolis, the U.S. Naval Academy, and graduated in 1995, a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. When we come back, more of Megan McClung’s story here on Our American Stories. And we continue with Our American Stories and author Tom Cilio, his book Be Bold: How a Marine Corps Hero Broke Barriers for Women at War. He’s telling the story of Megan McClung. Let’s pick up where we last left off.

Speaker 2: Obviously, technology was more limited in 2006, and despite that, she was still taking online courses at Boston University Metropolitan College, and eventually they earned her master’s in Criminal Justice, which, you know, to think that somebody is in a place like Fallujah or Ramadi and able to earn a master’s degree kind of speaks to, you know, the kind of person Megan was in the drive that she had. And another big thing that Megan had taken on after she was unable to continue competing in gymnastics at the Naval Academy for both some injuries she suffered and also the team being contracted, Megan got very interested in running marathons and then eventually triathlons and the Ironman Triathlon, and she competed all over the country, in the world, in those events. And one of the things that she wanted to do in Iraq, after running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., Megan said, “Well, hey, why can’t we do it over here? So what if we’re in a war zone; we can still run!” And she wound up being instrumental in organizing the first ever Marine Corps Marathon Forward, which was held, I believe, in November of 2006 near Fallujah. She actually had to fly back there to, you know, work on the race and officiate it. And she worked so hard on that, in addition to her studies at Boston