Serving as an Officer in the Marine Corps - Episode 51

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. She started her own consulting company (KMH consulting) in 2018 and she enjoys working for herself. she provides operations, logistics, and supply chain support to early-stage companies. She is also working to build the Veteran Owned Collective, which is a platform and community to connect and empower veteran business owners. She lives in NYC. She found out about ROTC during college and decided to look into the Navy. She had a love for military history and 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 the Marine Corps program at the end of her time at school. 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 and an officer she felt she needed to keep a professional front at all times and 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. 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 also learn more about Katie at her website: www.katiemhorgan.com This episode was made possible by Insure the Heroes, get a free life insurance quote today by calling Melissa at 844-514-LIFE today!