CHARLOTTE M. BROCK

Charlotte M. Brock’s father is a Foreign Service Officer, so growing up, her family moved from country to country every few years.  She has lived in Jamaica, South Korea, the Cape Verde Islands, Algeria, France, Mexico and Benin. One of her father’s uncles, a Marine, died test-piloting the Harrier; another, John Ripley, is a Vietnam War hero.  She knew early on that she wanted to be a Marine, although her father was dead-set against it. She was too smart to be a Marine, he said: it was a waste of brains and talent.

Brock was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer at age 22.  She was a Communications Officer, responsible for ensuring that communications were set up and maintained on the camp. While at Camp Taquaddum, Brock met the Officer in Charge of the mortuary and volunteered to help him in his duties in her time off. Now 28, Brock has recently left active duty but plans to stay in the Reserves.  She does not regret joining the Marine Corps, reporting that it gave her "self-knowledge, incredible experiences, trials and tests and periods where endurance was the only way to make it through."

Titles Available from Kore Press:

• Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq