When a roadside bomb in Iraq killed Megan McClung in 2006, she left behind a footlocker. Inside were note cards.

The Marine Corps major and Naval Academy graduate was a public affairs officer assigned to tell the stories of men and women at war five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

As her parents back home in the United States examined those note cards, they found, written in their daughter’s handwriting, advice she prepared for a senior officer about to do an interview: “Be Bold, Be Brief and Be Gone.”

The words summarized McClung’s approach to her job and, tragically, her life. They are engraved on her tombstone at Arlington National Cemetery.

“She was utterly dedicated to telling the story of the Marine Corps, of what our role was in Iraq,” said John Schofield, a former Navy public affairs officer and now communications director for the Naval Academy Alumni Association.

Thursday night, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro dedicated a new class of landing ships in honor of McClung, the first female Marine Corps officer slain in the Iraq War and the first female Naval Academy graduate killed in combat.

“I am honored to name the first ship in this class after Maj. McClung, a selfless leader and hero who embodied the highest ideals of service, honor, and loyalty to our nation,” he said.

It is possible to read Del Toro’s decision, made just days before he leaves office Monday as the civilian head of the Navy, as a political statement.

Pete Hegseth, a former FOX News commentator who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, spent the early part of the week being questioned by senators about remarks denigrating women who serve in combat roles, as well as allegations of sexual assault and public drunkenness. He is on a path to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. Eric Dent, who considered McClung a slightly older mentor, doesn’t believe her recognition is about politics. He sees Del Toro honoring a trailblazer. It’s the first time the Navy has named a ship for a public affairs officer.

“I think for those who weren’t fortunate enough to know Megan or who don’t know Megan’s story, it’s a good introduction to ‘Hey, here’s a member of our tribe who gave everything,’” Dent said.

Thursday’s private ceremony with McClung’s family marked the third time in a week that Del Toro honored Naval Academy graduates through ship dedications.

A new class of surveillance ships will be named for the late Don Walsh, a 1954 graduate who was one of the first two men to reach the deepest spot in the Pacific Ocean in 1960. And a new amphibious docking ship will be named for 1st Lt. Travis Manion, a Marine infantry officer who died in 2007.

McClung, of Coupeville, Washington, was the daughter of a Marine Corps infantry officer who served in Vietnam. When she graduated from Annapolis in 1995, it was more than a decade before the Pentagon officially allowed women to serve in combat roles.

When she went to the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, her father remembered thinking public affairs would be a good fit. During a Department of Defense interview published years after her death, Mike McClung recalled that his daughter saw public affairs as a means to an end.

“Megan said to me, ‘Nope. This way, I can go anywhere the infantry does and I don’t have to worry about the law,’” he said.

McClung coordinated journalists embedded with the Marine Expeditionary Force during her first tour of duty in Iraq. When she returned for a second tour, she was in the same role in the Army’s Brigade Combat Team.

She and two other service members, Capt. Travis Patriquin and Spc. Vincent Pomante III, were escorting Newsweek journalists in Ramadi, Iraq, on Dec. 6, 2006 when an improvised explosive device exploded by the side of the road. All three died. The journalists, who were in another vehicle, escaped without injury.

To public affairs officers who knew and worked with McClung, such as Dent and Schofield, it was a tragedy. But they said she understood the risks.

“Perpetual energy personified. Charisma, energy and enthusiasm,” Dent said. “We all serve knowing the risk and some serve with a smile, just like Megan.”

It’s a presence still felt at the Defense Information School, where the uniform services send officers for public affairs training. A generation after McClung was there, her name is on the wall of honor for more than 200 communications and public affairs specialists killed in combat.

The school offers an annual award named for McClung to its top graduate.

“We continue to look to her courage as an example because it takes courage to go into combat. to tell the story of men and women in uniform,“ said Marine Capt. Eric Bohnenkamp, an instructor at the school. ”That’s the embodiment of courage.”

And her words, “Be Bold, Be Brief and Be Gone,” are still considered the embodiment of being good at public affairs.

“That was sort of the way she lived her life,” Dent said. “She was dedicated and her life was too brief.”