PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents PFC Vicki M. Taylor’s legacy of their military service from 1980 to 1981. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
This Memorial Day, Is There a Particular Person From Your Military Service, Who Is No Longer With Us, You Wish to Remember? What Special Memories Do You Have of This Person?
Be Bold. Be Brief. Be Gone. The Legacy of Major Megan McClung, USMC
On December 6, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq which was then one of the most volatile cities in the world Major Megan Malia McClung was killed in action when an IED struck her Humvee during a mission escorting journalists embedded with Marine forces. She was 34.
What made her presence on that convoy so powerful was this: she didn t have to be there. She was the senior public affairs officer in the region she could have delegated the mission. But Megan believed leaders share risk, not avoid it. She believed in showing the world what our Marines were doing and standing beside them while they did it.
Her death marked a somber milestone: the first female Marine officer killed in Iraq, and the first female Naval Academy graduate to fall in combat. But her legacy transcends that.
She left behind a leadership philosophy that resonates to this day:
Be Bold. Be Brief. Be Gone.
These were not empty words. Megan used this mantra when training Marines to engage the media a directive to speak with purpose, act with courage, and move with conviction. It became so closely associated with her that it s now engraved on her headstone at Arlington National Cemetery.
Major McClung s courage wasn t performative. It was quiet, steady, and absolute. Whether coordinating press embeds in a combat zone or serving shoulder-to-shoulder with those on the front lines, she embodied selfless leadership.
We honor her not just for how she died, but for how she led.
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