Mount Soledad Memorial Honors Female Marine from Camp Pendleton

By Amy Forsythe, Member of the Board of Trustees for the Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial

SAN DIEGO (May 30, 2022) — The Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial honored U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Megan McClung, and our nation’s heroes through a live and virtual tribute May 30, 2022.

Megan McClung graduated from the United Stated Naval Academy in 1995 and was serving in Iraq as a Public Affairs Officer when she was killed by a roadside bomb.

McClung was the first female Marine officer to be killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 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 McClung was serving as a Public Affairs Officer in Al Anbar Province, Iraq , when she was killed by a roadside improvised explosive device.

“Be Bold. Be Brief. Be Gone.” is inscribed on the plaque created for Maj. Megan McClung. The Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial offers plaques for living and deceased veterans. To learn more, go to: https://soledadmemorial.org/honor-a-veteran/

The keynote speaker was U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, a retired three-star general who served as a Brigade Combat Team commander in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006 and credited with fostering the Sunni Arab “Awakening” movement which was instrumental in turning the tide of the war. He also commanded all coalition forces in the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria from 2015 to 2016, during which time coalition forces seized the initiative, recaptured nearly half of the enemy’s territory…