Mary Virginia "Ginger" Jacocks (b. 1950), of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, served in Intelligence in the United States Marine Corps from 1974-1997. She retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Ginger Jacocks was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 8th, 1950, growing up in East Baton Rouge Parish. Upon graduation from high school, she went to Southeastern Louisiana University, where she majored in physical education, graduating in 1972. She then taught physical education at Baker High School, again in East Baton Rouge Parish. She then returned to Southeastern Louisiana University for a master’s degree in physical education with an emphasis in physiology of exercise. Then, in 1974, she entered the Marine Corps, attending Officer Candidate School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. During basic training, Jacocks chose the intelligence field and was sent to intelligence training. She was then assigned to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia for on the job training while waiting for her clearance to come through, and then went to intelligence school at Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado. Next, she was assigned back to Norfolk, where she was the officer in charge of the imagery interpretation team and the assistant collections officer. Following that assignment, she went to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, where she was a series commander and worked on a team developing field instruction for women Marines. Jacocks then went to Defense Intelligence College, and then to Okinawa, Japan from 1983 to 1984, where she was tasked with putting together an intelligence section. Upon returning to the U.S., she went to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, to work at Marine Corps Development and Education Command as the head of the threat analysis branch. Next, she went to Command Staff College, also at Quantico, and then to Camp Lejeune with the 10th Marines in 1988. She then moved to the 2nd Force Service Support Group. From that assignment, she deployed with her unit to Saudi Arabia as part of Desert Storm/Desert Shield. In 1991, Jacocks was at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, at which time there was a refugee camp of Haitians who had fled Haiti and were not being allowed into the U.S. She was then assigned to a command in Germany, which dealt with Marine Corps detachments at U.S. embassies in the former Warsaw Pact area in Russia, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Greece, Finland. For her final assignment, she taught at Command Staff College, and then retired in 1997 as a lieutenant colonel. After retirement, she worked in similar positions with the military as a civilian.
