High-ranking Marine shared running passion in Iraq

Published 6:00 pm Monday, December 18, 2006

Marine Maj. Megan McClung shared her passion for athletics with fellow soldiers by organizing a runner’s event, inspiring hundreds of deployed soldiers in the process.

McClung, a 34-year-old public affairs officer for the Marines who had ties to Coupeville, was killed in Iraq Dec. 6.

The daughter of Michael and Re McClung, who live in Coupeville, Maj. McClung was serving with the Camp Pendleton-based I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group when she was killed by a roadside bomb in the city of Ramadi in the Anbar province.

McClung was a triathlete and an avid runner. In October, she helped organize a satellite marathon for Marines in Iraq to coincide with the Marine Corps Marathon more than 6,000 miles away in Arlington, Va.

That’s how she crossed paths with another Whidbey Island resident currently in Iraq.

Navy Cmdr. Matt Simms, who is serving a tour with the Multinational Force — Iraq, Combined Intelligence Operations Center in Baghdad, said he first contacted her to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon Forward when McClung was organizing at Al Asad Air Base near the city of Baghdad in Iraq’s Anbar province.

“Her enthusiasm and energy were immediately apparent, and she sounded like a runner herself,” he said in an e-mail to The Record.

Simms said McClung had the gift to motivate others.

Once Simms and another Navy runner were confirmed for the race they started getting periodic updates from her motivating them to train.

“She was inspiring us to do hills in preparation for the difficult course the runners were going to face in the event, peppering us with race details covering everything from water stops to some pretty cool schwag,” Simms recalled.

“Then she went out of her way to help me and a number of other Baghdad runners to arrange rides on helicopter missions headed into Anbar province in time for the race start,” he said.

Simms said McClung was extremely disappointed when the Baghdad group wasn’t able to run after she learned they were stuck overnight in a lightning storm in Fallujah.

“Despite problems that would bring much grief to your average race organizer, she made it work and delivered an incredible event to the more than 100 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians serving in the Multinational Force who were able to make it there,” Simms said.

McClung took second place herself in the race with a time of three hours, 44 minutes and 10 seconds.

Even though Simms only had limited contact with McClung, he said she was one of those special people in this world.

“One who would work tirelessly for and deeply care about people she’d never met, finding ways to make their lives better — 108 runners gained a significant life experience thanks to her on that day in late October,” Simms said.

“Runners who got a much needed three- or four- or five- or maybe six-hour break from the often incredibly difficult and always challenging work they are doing every day in support of the citizens of Iraq. And the impact of her efforts went far beyond that.”

Simms said she inspired hundreds, maybe thousands, of fellow soldiers, family members and friends who heard about the race through her media work during training and the race, “and the ones who heard about it afterwards in water cooler conversations all over Iraq. And the people who found it on the Internet somewhere.”

“A few of those thought about maybe one day doing a race. And some of them started running once or twice a week to launch the training plan. She minted runners, that girl. She inspired people to do great things,” Simms said.

McClung became a commissioned officer in 1995 upon her graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy. She was promoted to major in June of this year and had been in Iraq since January.

McClung has become the highest-ranking female service member to die in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, according to icasualties.org, a non-profit, nonmilitary database that keeps coalition casualties statistics.

Only 68 of the 2,937 U.S. service members to die in Iraq since the invasion in 2003 have been women.

McClung also was the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., to be killed in Iraq, according to a statement by Lt. Col. Bryan F. Salas, a public affairs officer with the Multi-National-Force West.

Salas, her supervisor in Iraq, said McClung was an advocate of media coverage of military operations and she managed the Marine media embed program, and worked with civilian journalists from major news outlets.

According to media reports, McClung was on her way back from safely escorting one of the embedded journalists when her truck was struck. Two other soldiers were killed with her.

Countless journalists remembered her in online blogs and editorials as one of the finest public affairs officers they dealt with in Iraq. She had high standards and was dedicated to telling the story of the war and the Americans fighting it.

Soldiers and journalists in Iraq have lost a friendly face and motivating force amidst the chaos of daily life in Iraq.

“The world was a better place with M4 in it,” Simms said.

McClung was due to come home from Iraq in one month.

McClung’s family could not be reached for comment.

McClung will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Michaela Marx Wheatley can be reached at 221-5300 or mmarx

wheatley@southwhidbeyrecord.com.