This episode is sponsored by Insure the Heroes.
What is it like to serve as a female Marine Corps Officer? Hear the latest episode of Women of the Military and how Katie ended up in the Marines and what her experience was like.
A Female Marine Corps Officer.
Katie served in the United States Marine Corps for six years as a Logistics Officer from 2006-2012. She got out as a Captain. Two deployments: Iraq and a MEU (marine expeditionary unit). She left the military in 2012, moved to NYC to attend Columbia Business School. She has worked at a series of early-stage startups since getting her MBA. In 2018, She started her own consulting company (KMH consulting) and she enjoys working for herself. she provides operations, logistics, and supply chain support to early-stage companies. Another project she is working on is to build the Veteran Owned Collective, which is a platform and community to connect and empower veteran business owners. She lives in NYC.
Looking into the Navy
She found out about the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) during college and decided to look into the Navy. Because of her love for military history, she was drawn into the ROTC program. And she loved that the military would pay for her schooling while she was working to become an officer. So, it was a great fit. She saw the Marine section of Navy ROTC as an elite group and she wanted to be a part of it. So, she switched to the Marine Corps program at the end of her time at school.
Deploying to Iraq
When she deployed to Iraq it was her first time leaving the United States. One of the hardest parts of her deployment was that she was very lonely. Being a female Marine and an officer she felt she needed to keep a professional front at all times. It made the deployment experience difficult. She was able to meet up with people throughout the deployment to get through it and have a break. But it was still hard.
Her second deployment was with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) which is a crisis response task force on a Navy ship. So, she was on a Navy ship and was working logistics and was part of the team ready to respond to various crises around the globe. She got to see a lot of the world. And her favorite port she visited was Thailand.
Before she left for her MEU deployment, she knew she was going to be getting out of the military when she returned home. So, she had applied to graduate school and found out two weeks before she shipped out that she would be attending Columbia in the fall. She was prepared for the transition out of the military, but it was hard to go from an extreme environment of go go go and being on to being a college student. That made the transition really hard.
Free Resources for Veterans
Two great resources we talked about available for veterans and military spouses for free are American Corporate Partners and Veterati. Both companies have mentorships available and connect people with someone who can help push you in the right direction or even find a new job. After graduating she worked for a handful of companies before becoming a consultant for various small businesses. She also is working to grow a group for veteran small business owners to support each other. It is called the Veteran Owned Collective and you can learn more about it here.
You can learn more about Katie on her website: www.katiehorgan.com
Listen to the whole episode here.
Thank you to Insure the Heroes for being a supporter of the Women of the Military Podcast.
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