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, graduating from Mission Viejo High School.

Her family had a history of military service. Her paternal grandfather served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and her father was a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer^[2] who served in Vietnam, seeing combat in the Tet Offensive. Her maternal grandfather was a U.S. Navy officer and pilot.^[3] She attended the United States Naval Academy,^[4] graduating and receiving her officer's commission in 1995.

McClung graduated with her master's degree in Criminology from Boston University in 2006, several months prior to her death.

Marine Corps career; Killed in Iraq

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. On December 6, 2006, McClung was serving with the I Marine Expeditionary Force as the Marine Corps head of public affairs for Al Anbar Province, in charge of embedded journalists. Earlier in the day, she had been accompanying Oliver North with his Fox News camera crew in Ramadi. She subsequently was escorting Newsweek journalists into downtown Ramadi. A massive improvised explosive device (IED) destroyed McClung's Humvee, instantly killing McClung and the other two occupants. The Newsweek journalists were not injured.

McClung was the first female Marine officer to be killed in the Iraq war, as well as the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy to be killed in action since the school was founded in 1845.

Major Megan McClung was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on December 19, 2006.

Athletic endeavors

While in high school and college, McClung competed as a gymnast.

McClung was a triathlete (having competed in six Ironman competitions) and a marathoner. In October 2006, she organized and ran in the Marine Corps Marathon's satellite competition, Marine Corps Marathon Forward in Iraq.