NORTH COUNTY - The highest-ranking woman from the U.S. Marine Corps to be killed in Iraq has been honored with the dedication of a broadcast studio in her name at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

The studio that opened last week salutes Maj. Megan McClung, a 34-year-old Orange County native and Camp Pendleton spokeswoman who died in a roadside bombing while escorting a group of journalists in the city of Ramadi on Dec. 6, 2006.

"I think Megan would have been embarrassed by this, but we do find it appropriate that she will now be in the background for stories coming out of Iraq," her father, Mike McClung, said during a telephone interview Monday from his home in Coupeville, Wash.

A well-known public affairs officer and triathlete whose working motto was "Be bold, be brief, be gone," McClung was the 69th U.S. servicewoman to be killed since the March 2003 invasion. Thirty-one more have since died, a total that translates to 2.57 percent of the 3,386 U.S. fatalities through Monday.

A former Marine officer himself, Mike McClung said his daughter was never interested in being in front of the camera nor being the subject of a story.

"She believed the best person to tell the story was the person responsible," he said. "She was well-known for being able to get the right people in front of the cameras at the right time."

Army Maj. Joseph Edstrom, a public affairs officer at Camp Victory, came up with the idea of dedicating the studio in McClung's name. A sign outside the studio recognizing McClung was unveiled by three of the top commanders in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno and Marine Maj. Gens. John Paxton and Walter Gaskin.

In the months since her death, her father said he and his wife, Re, have been sought out by numerous people who knew and worked with his daughter. All wanted to share stories about her, he said.

"You want your children to be remembered, and Megan has created quite a legacy for herself, which I'm sure she didn't really intend to create," he said. "We've learned many things about our daughter as a Marine, as an athlete and as an officer."

McClung's death was notable for another reason: She was the first female graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy to die in combat since the school began accepting women in 1976.

McClung and two Army troops, Capt. Travis Patriquin and Spc. Vincent Pomante, were in a Humvee escorting two Newsweek journalists when their vehicle was ripped apart by the roadside bomb.

She was in Iraq that day by choice. The 1995 Naval Academy graduate had left active duty months earlier and gone to work for a private contractor, finding herself back in Baghdad in 2005.

Her father said that during an e-mail exchange, she wrote him that she needed to be back in uniform. A few months later she was, serving as a spokeswoman for Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force.

One of the men who worked with her during that period, Mike Alvarez, now a civilian public affairs officer at Camp Pendleton, said he thinks of McClung every day.

"I'll always remember her as a very cheery person with an uncanny ability to make you feel at ease during times of high stress," Alvarez said. "She never seemed to let things shake her up."

Alvarez said he was working in Haditha when he heard she had been killed.

"We really felt the loss," he said. "The Marine Corps took a huge hit that day, but she will forever live on in our memories."

McClung was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors on Dec. 19 of last year.

- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.