Megan M. McClung dies of injuries from I.E.D.

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A Marine major from Camp Pendleton has become the highest-ranking female service member to die in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Maj. Megan McClung, 34, a public affairs officer who was serving with the Camp Pendleton-based I Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed Wednesday in a roadside bomb explosion in the city of Ramadi, which is in the Anbar province.

"She was a Marine's Marine and an outstanding public affairs officer," Col. Darcy Kauer, commanding officer at the I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group at Camp Pendleton said in an e-mail to the North County Times. "She was a great friend to all who served with her. Her death has shocked and saddened all who knew her. She will be deeply missed."

The Defense Department did not release details Monday of how McClung died. But a Web site that first reported her death on Friday said she was working with a journalist on a story in downtown Ramadi when the bomb was triggered.

According to icasualties.org, a nonmilitary database that tracks all coalition casualties, McClung is the highest-ranking woman to have been killed in the war. Sixty-four of the 2,931 U.S. service members to die in Iraq since the invasion were women. McClung is the fourth female Marine to have been killed.

She also was the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy killed in Iraq, according to an e-mail from Lt. Col. Bryan F. Salas, a public affairs officer with the Multi-National Force-West in Iraq.

Under U.S. military rules, women are prohibited from combat assignments. Those killed have died largely as a result of accidents or attacks on convoys from small-arms fire, roadside bombs or suicide bombers.

McClung, a native of the small western Washington town of Coupeville along Puget Sound, was a competitive triathlete who became a commissioned officer in 1995 upon her graduation from the Naval Academy. She was promoted to major in June of this year and had been in Iraq since January.

When reached at his home in Coupeville, McClung's father said Monday morning that he and other family members were withholding comment for now.

Salas said McClung was devoted to helping the media cover the war.

"She was an advocate of media coverage of military operations," he wrote in his e-mail. "While in Iraq, she managed the media embed program, developed public affairs plans for operations and found time to organize the Marine Corps Marathon."

The marathon was conducted at the U.S. base at Al Asad in memory of U.S. service personnel killed in the war.

Kara Dumont, who graduated from the Naval Academy with McClung in 1995, was a member of the swim team when McClung joined the diving team.

"I do remember her as being very friendly, kind and vibrant as a midshipman at the Naval Academy," Dumont wrote in an e-mail to the North County Times. "She was a great triathlete and a well-respected competitor."

McClung also spent time in the public affairs office at Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, N.C., and left active service for a job in the private sector in 2004. She returned to duty last year from what was then her status as Marine Reservist and was deployed to Iraq in January of this year.

Her awards included the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the national Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

People who say they knew her were posting comments on various Web sites Monday with praise for her efforts in Iraq. Others wrote about her zeal for running, her dedication to the Marine Corps and her duties as a public affairs officer.

Skip Atwood, a Colorado resident who met McClung when both were working for defense contractors in Baghdad before she was called back to active duty, said he will remember her as a warm and engaging woman.

"She had the happiest and most energetic personality and always had a smile on her face," Atwood said in a telephone interview. "She became friends with people very quickly and never came across as an authoritarian type."

The other female Marines to die in Iraq are Lance Cpl. Juana NavarroArellano, who died April 8 from small-arms fire, Cpl. Ramona M. Valdez and Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette. Valdez and Charette died from injuries in a suicide car bombing on June 23 of last year, according to icasualties.org.

From the North County Times