I am a Marine. But I didn't always start out that way. I was born in Los Angeles and raised in the OC. After I graduated from UCLA, I attended Officer Candidate School. I graduated second in my platoon and was commissioned a 2nd LT in December of 1999.
I served on active duty from 1999 to 2003 and I was a Public Affairs Officer. My job was to tell the Marine Corps story to the public. And I loved it. It was an honor to be both a leader of Marines and a spokesperson for the Nation’s 911 force. I got to see so many different aspects of the Marine Corps and then share it with others. It was an awesome job and I had a great time.
When I first joined the Marine Corps, I was well-aware of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. And I believed that all that mattered was that I would be the best Marine I could be and I didn’t need a personal life. And it’s funny how life doesn’t quite work that way.
My Marines would often talk about their significant others and I would be the boring lieutenant, who was a workaholic. While I was deployed to Iraq in 2005, I bumped into an officer in Ramadi, who told me, “You were the best lieutenant I ever had.” Go figure that.
I left active duty in 2003 to go to graduate school and to escape the stress of living under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I somehow managed to get admitted to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and earned a MS degree. But then something interesting happened, in 2004, I was activated to go join the 5th Civil Affairs Group to go to Falluja and Ramadi Iraq.
Currently, I am a Los Angeles Police Officer. I graduated at the top of my class in Feb 2007 and am currently patrolling the streets of LA. I am a Marine, news junkie, public servant, Bruin, hiker, biker and sometimes skateboarder....and fighter against social injustice.
