Our Founders
Director, Major Linda Cates Lacy, USMC, Retired
Linda Cates Lacy served in the Women Marines and the United States Marine Corps from 1972-1991. She retired with the rank of major. She graduated from high school in 1962, and went to the University of Louisville while working as a clerk and then receptionist, graduating in 1969. Lacy then obtained a Master of Arts degree in Business Education from Western Kentucky University, graduating in 1972. She was also working as a teacher at that time.
Linda enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, attending basic training in Quantico, Virginia in January of 1973, as well as Officer Candidate School. She was then assigned to Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, as an assistant exchange officer. She was soon transferred to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as an exchange officer, in June 1974, and received a promotion to first lieutenant in late 1975. She also met her future husband in Philadelphia, who was also in the United States Marine Corps. Linda’s next assignment was at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, starting in November of 1976. She was assigned as assistant director of the clubs system and promoted to the rank of captain in 1977, and also married. She was then assigned as director of the clubs ksystem, which was her final assignment before leaving active duty in 1979. Linda was then in the Individual Ready Reserve, and returned to teaching high school first in Hawaii, then in North Carolina. She received a promotion to the rank of major in 1983 and retired on January 1, 1991.
Linda was later active in the Women Marines Association and wrote We Are Marines, a book on the history of female Marines. Linda dedicated more than 20 years to research, documentation, and collecting artifacts in effort to preserve and share the history of women Marines. She received the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation Julia Hamblet award for her accomplishments.
Executive Director, Master Sergeant Jeannine Franz, USMC, Retired
Served in the Marine Corps from 1996-2016 and retired at fhe rank of master sergeant. She began her career in the Marine Corps Band as a flute player and later made a lateral move to administration.
Jeannine deployed to Camp Fallujah, Iraq in 2007 for 13 months with 2d Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) and served as the Staff Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of the Administrative Reach-back Center and as the unit coordinator and team leader for the Iraqi Women's Engagement Program. Following the deployment, she served as a Marine Combat Instructor. After that tour, she deployed to Camp Bastion Afghanistan with HMH-461 in 2013.
As a musician, Jeannine was assigned to the Marine Forces Pacific Band in Hawaii and The Quantico Marine Band. As an administrator, she was assigned to Headquarters Battalion in Quantico; 9th Marine Corps Recruiting District in Kansas City, MO; Headquarters Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force; HMH-461, Marine Corps Air Station New River; and Marine Special Operations Command at Stone Bay, NC as the G-1 Adjutant Chief.
Jeannine joined as a life member of VFW Post 9983 and the Women Marines Association in 2007. She served as the WMA Iraqi Lioness Chapter president for several years and as the WMA National 2nd Vice President from 2016 to 2022 where one of her duties was oversight of the WMA History and Archives Committee.