Fatima Audu

I immigrated from Nigeria to Texas with my parents, and growing up, I really didn't know what I wanted to do. When I was working, a Marine Corps recruiter approached me and offered me an opportunity to go to school. My parents didn't make a whole lot of money, so serving was my option to take care of my education. I joined the military in 2001 as a radio operator, responsible for going into different areas that didn't have communication infrastructure and installing systems so everyone could communicate via radio and phones. My first deployment was a combat deployment to Iraq in 2003, which was eye-opening because I had been in Texas, went to boot camp, and then was overseas in a combat situation in less than a year. I did three deployments to Iraq in total, plus various other deployments. When I picked up E8 rank, I chose to become a First Sergeant rather than a Master Sergeant, which meant I became an advisor to commanders instead of staying in technical communications. As a First Sergeant and later Sergeant Major, I was the left-hand person to commanders, working side by side to ensure all individuals in the unit were taken care of. When Congress mandated opening male-dominant jobs to women, I was asked to go into an infantry battalion as the first female First Sergeant in a line company. I had to identify bathroom spaces for the women, ensure female hygiene items were available in stores, and provide leadership for these junior women entering a very male-dominant field. I deployed on the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit right after COVID, and while deployed, I was promoted to Sergeant Major. I then took 1st Battalion 4th Marines as the first female Sergeant Major to do so in the Marine Corps. I came off my deployment, was home for only 10 days, and then was with my new unit in a training evolution without real downtime. I took that unit on a deployment with the 31st MEU, patrolling the Pacific from Okinawa. After that successful deployment, I went to Infantry Training Battalion as the first female to run the schoolhouse, where I had 76 infantry combat instructors out of a team of 200, training every Marine infantryman coming through boot camp in their first school. That's where I retired from on February 1st.