The daughter of Coupeville residents was killed in Iraq Dec. 6.

U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Megan McClung, a 34-year-old Camp Pendleton public affairs officer, was the highest-ranking female service member to die in Iraq since the start of the war. She is the only female graduate of the Naval Academy to die in the war.

McClung was killed by a roadside bomb in the insurgent hotbed of Al Anbar province while escorting reporters, the Defense Department reported.

Her parents, Michael and Re McClung, live in the Race Lagoon Heights neighborhood near Coupeville. Michael McClung said his daughter never really lived in Coupeville, but listed their address with the military as her home of record. The only time she spent on the island was when she visited for a week last Christmas.

Megan McClung was born in Hawaii and grew up in Southern California.

Major McClung was assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group at Camp Pendleton, Calif. In Iraq, part of her job was to manage the embedded reporter program.

Her father said her philosophy was to enable the media to get access to the right people and to let them tell the story. He said she was returning after escorting FOX News personality Oliver North to Ramadi when she was killed.

“She was a beautiful, beautiful woman,” Michael McClung said. “She was very conscientious, very focused on making sure her people got what they needed, and by extension, what the embedded media needed.”

Michael McClung said he’s been astounded to learn how many people knew and respected his daughter. He’s received calls from reporters at ABC, CBS and NBC in New York and Washington D.C. and on and on. She is written about in thousands of Internet blogs.

“She lived 25-8,” he said. “She must have had an extra hour in the day and an extra day in the week to have talked to all the people who knew her.”

Megan McClung was also an accomplished athlete. She went to the Naval Academy as a gymnast. She completed eight grueling triathlete competitions and a marathon. The Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that McClung came up with the idea for a marathon in Iraq, known as the Marine Corps Marathon Forward, and outran her male colleagues.

McClung will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery Tuesday morning with full military honors. The Marine Corps is holding a memorial service for her Monday at Quantico.

Michael McClung said he heard Oliver North may be planning some sort of memorial for Megan.

The Department of Defense reported that 2,925 Americans have been killed in the Iraq war as of Tuesday, according to the Web site icasulties.org.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.