Megan Malia Leilani McClung (April 14, 1972 – December 6, 2006) was the first female United States Marine Corps officer killed in combat during the Iraq War. Major McClung was serving as a public affairs officer in Al Anbar Province, Iraq when she was killed. Biography Early life; education; family Megan Malia Leilani McClung was born on April 14, 1972 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Mike and Re McClung. She was raised in Orange County, California and graduated from Mission Viejo High School, Mission Viejo, CA in 1990. Megan became the first (or one of the first) female students to attend Admiral Farragut Academy in New Jersey, where she completed a one year course prior to entering the United States Naval Academy. She graduated from the Naval Academy was commissioned in 1995. Her family had a history of military service. Her paternal grandfather served in the United States Army during World War II, and her father was a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer who served in Vietnam, seeing combat in the Tet Offensive. Her maternal grandfather was a U.S. Navy officer and pilot. McClung graduated with her master's degree in Criminology from Boston University in 2006, several months prior to her death. Most of her coursework was completed while she was deployed. Marine Corps career McClung was commissioned an officer in the Marine Corps in 1995 and served on active duty until 2004, when she entered the Reserves. In 2004, she joined Kellogg, Brown, and Root, an American engineering and construction company and went to Iraq as a private contractor. In 2006, she returned to active duty with the Marines and in January 2006, she was deployed to Iraq as a public affairs officer with the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF). She was promoted to the rank of Major in June. In December 2006, she was in the final month of a year-long deployment to Iraq and was the chief public affairs officer in Al Anbar Province, where she was in charge of embedded journalists. Earlier in the day on December 6, 2006, she had been accompanying Oliver North with his Fox News camera crew in Ramadi. She was escorting Newsweek journalists into downtown Ramadi when a massive improvised explosive device (IED) destroyed her Humvee, instantly killing McClung and the other two occupants, Army Capt. Travis Patriquin and Army Spec. Vincent Pomante III. The Newsweek journalists were not injured. McClung