1980’s America: a time President Ronald Reagan ran the country, military spending increased for the rising tensions of the Cold War, and cable television became a standard in homes. While many things bustled in the country, the attention of a rural Sunday-church going girl in the landscapes of Dayton, Ohio, was set on other things.

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Rhonda C. Martin, who is currently the longest-serving active-duty Marine, explained she was 19 years old and attended Wright State University at that time but wanted to do something to travel and see parts of the world, so she looked to join the Peace Corps.

Accidentally, she admitted, Martin walked into the wrong building and found herself in the Marine Corps recruiting office. Once she saw U.S. Marines, she was immediately drawn into their professional appearance and demeanor.

She enlisted in 1983 as an “open contract.” After graduating boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, the Marine Corps assigned her to be an administrative specialist.

“Boot camp was very different back then,” she said matter-of-factly.

When she joined the Corps, women were required to do a 1.5-mile run, sit-ups, and a timed flexed arm hang, a stark difference from today’s standards where every Marine has the same fitness test. According to Martin, women spent many hours on their appearance and hygiene. In fact, women didn’t receive marksmanship training in the Marine Corps until October of 1985—the only handling of a rifle women did back then was to clean them.

When Pvt. Martin made it to the fleet, she was in for a shock. The young Marine from Ohio was soft spoken, didn’t curse, and thought everyone was good-natured and kind.

The Marine Corps can be very abrasive, but she took the best parts from her experience to become better, she said.

“I truly understood what it meant to be part of a team ... to be accountable not just for myself, but for others,” she explained. “It’s hard sometimes to hear that you’re not meeting expectations, but that feedback is what makes you better.”

“I learned to embrace criticism, to listen, and to grow from it,” she added.

After a few years, she found herself at a familiar crossroads for all Marines: stay or go, and it was time to reenlist.

She decided at this point that she would plan her life every three or four years, in line with the reenlistment cycle for each tour of duty as a Marine. Each time reenlistment came also came an opportunity she couldn’t pass up, eventually landing her where she is now—the current longest-serving active-duty Marine.

She saw many changes in the Marine Corps throughout her career, but she “always remembered what it felt like to be Pvt. Martin—unsure, eager to prove myself, and looking up to those who had already walked the path I was on. That perspective shaped how I led others.”

Martin uses her decades of experience to better the force she had influence over, but throughout her time in service, she said her priority was staying true to herself even as leadership conventions and behaviors shifted over the decades.

She explained how leaders address the concerns and questions of their Marines now, a contrast from her formative years where juniors didn’t typically question their seniors.

“[It] challenges us to do better, to be more innovative, to really problem-solve complex problems," she admitted.

Although her experience in the Marine Corps helped shape her into who she is today, so did her educational pursuits. During her early years in the Corps, she took on college again and graduated from Northwood University in 1994 with her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, the same year she became a drill instructor.

Martin wanted to add that for that degree, she used tuition assistance, an education program offered to active-duty Marines and Sailors, something she highly recommends all Marines to do.

Martin transitioned into the life of a drill instructor and was promoted to staff sergeant while serving her first platoon.

“My time as a drill instructor helped me to understand the impact of my words and actions on our young Marines,” Martin said. “It also made me focus on the tone, timing and delivery of my words when speaking to anyone to ensure the message was heard and understood.”

She completed her tour without the iconic DI campaign cover, though, because this was the time women were not allowed to don the cover. Martin left the drill field in June of 1996 to become a Marine officer, just a few months before the Marine Corps changed the policy and women Drill Instructors began wearing the iconic cover.

Staff Sgt. Martin decided to become an officer because she felt she could have more positive influence on her Marines. This decision came just two years after combat aviation opened to women. While she remained an administrator in the officer ranks, this historical change in the Corps foreshadowed more positive change to come.

By the early 2000s, women increasingly began serving in non-traditional combat-zone roles, particularly in intelligence, logistics, and military police, reflecting a slow cultural shift in recognizing their capabilities.

In 2001 while assigned to 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit as its adjutant, Martin was selected for promotion to captain and eventually frocked—“Frocked” is term meaning a service member is allowed to wear the next rank before the official promotion date.

According to Martin, this period brought on a lot of challenges, especially after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. She believes her deployments with the 31st MEU strengthened her leadership and professional skills in deployed environment.

“It was one of my favorite assignments that I was hand selected for,” she said.

Martin was frocked again in 2007—this time pinning on the rank of major while working as the Aide-de-Camp at Manpower and Reserve Affairs on Quantico. She didn’t stop there. In 2009, she graduated Boston University Metropolitan College with a Master of Science in Business Management and later that year she also graduated from Command and Staff College with a master’s in military studies.

“I believe you must always challenge yourself physically and mentally to be prepared for future conflict as a Marine,” she said.

Martin eventually had her first opportunity to serve in a combat zone while forward deployed as the assistant chief of staff for G-1 for the1st Marine Logistics Group, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Pendleton, California, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from February 2010 until 2011.

“It was my first opportunity in combat to utilize my technical expertise as a manpower officer,” Martin said, “and I learned a lot about our Marines resiliency in an ever-changing environment.”

Two years after Martin’s first combat zone deployment, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta lifted the ban on women serving in direct combat roles. This milestone was a significant victory for female service members and a moment she celebrated. Two years later, all military occupations were opened to women. By 2016, women were allowed to serve in the infantry and as infantry officers.

In 2014, Martin promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was assigned as the assistant chief of staff, G-1, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

“This was one of most fulfilling assignments I had professionally,” reflected Martin, who served about 20 years in the Marine Corps by this point in her career. “I participated in two real-world crisis responses in the Philippines and Nepal, planned and participated in several large-scale exercises both ashore and while afloat.” 

While in Nepal, Martin helped the unified command administratively but also supported the Marines mentally after six Marines from their unit went missing after a helicopter mishap.

Two of those Marines, Lance Cpl. Jacob Hug and Cpl. Sara Medina, combat cameramen, were under the charge of Lt. Col. Cassandra Stanton, the public affairs officer for the mission. Their helicopter, call sign Vengeance 01, went missing for about five days.

“We were so stressed,” Stanton said. “Calls they were alive, calls that they weren’t—it was horrific.”

Stanton explained that the command was reaching a critical point emotionally; there were Marines breaking down, and there was a lot of tension within the command center all while receiving false alarms regarding the welfare of the missing Marines attached to 3rd MEB. The Marines were a close-knit unit sleeping in the same area, working the same mission, and eating, joking and talking together.

“When that helicopter went down …” Stanton began, “… it was the worst moment in my Marine Corps career.”

Martin was called to assist the unit during the last few weeks of the mission.

“When she came to us, we had a source of positive energy,” Stanton expressed.

Martin had a way of dealing with the issue at hand while also supporting people with her positive behavior, Stanton explained. She had a warm and wholesome presence that lifted the spirits of the rooms she entered.

“It was felt through the entire command, from general officers to junior Marines. Her impact was shocking.”

Stanton continued to say that everyone left that mission with pieces of themselves missing, but if not for Martin, she felt things would have been much worse.

“We still lost six Marines,” Stanton explained, “and we were all broken even after the deployment, but when [Rhonda] got on deck, she changed the feeling of the command center.”

Martin added that it was the one of the few times in her career where she felt truly part of the team in real-world humanitarian effort.

“She saved me emotionally in a lot of ways,” Stanton explained. “I had 15 other Marines that I still had to lead … and I had someone I can lean on now [with Rhonda].”

“That was the most impactful experience. I don’t know how I would have gotten through it without her.”

Later in 2020, Martin worked out of Manpower and Reserve Affairs working on integration policies at MCB Quantico. This is when she met Lt. Col. Mandy Brannon. Together, they worked on the Marine Corps Force Integration Campaign Plan.

“I was a reservist in that position,” Brannon said, who is now an active-duty Marine assigned as the chief of Combined Joint Logistics Exercises and Plans, Combined Forces Command, South Korea. “When I learned she enlisted in ’83, I knew she would have so much knowledge and experience with integration.”

Brannon and Martin shared their experiences in the Marine Corps, as both were enlisted Marines first, and their combined knowledge helped write for integration policies.

“Beyond the work that we were doing, I was able to just ask questions to her,” Brannon explained. “I was in the capacity that we serve in the same pay grade, yet I was junior to her in experience.”

Martin served nearly 40 years by this point with leadership experience in 11 ranks—officer and enlisted—across deployments, exercises, policy-writing, and much more.

“It’s like I am talking to a general officer,” she explained regarding her conversations with Martin.

“Yes, she’s not a general officer,” she flatly pointed out, “but she has the experience of the behind-the-scenes of everything that it takes to make those levels of decisions.”

Brannon’s comment about Martin’s behind-the-scenes work is something Martin explained as it’s where she loves to be: “I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes person,” she said.

Both Stanton and Brannon hold Martin in the highest regards and feel as though they can go to her for help in any professional and personal matters, knowing Martin would help them.

Brannon said that Martin “brings a human element that is often forgotten or not considered in the military or even as an administrator,” which is a line of work that deals with black-and-white issues—not much room for negotiation.

Stanton agreed with Brannon and added that Martin is very serious about being a Marine and she just does it better than others.

“She has corrected me before,” Stanton admitted, “but when I was corrected by her, I felt better about myself walking away from that experience.”

Stanton then confidently noted, “That is something you can’t teach leaders.”

Neither Stanton nor Brannon want Martin to leave the Marine Corps; in fact, they think the Marine Corps is better off with her. So, they hope she somehow stays involved with the Corps after retirement.

If it were up to Martin, she would stay in, too, she said; although, she’s happy that she’s leaving the Marine Corps better than when she came into it.

Martin’s mandatory retirement date is Jan. 1, 2026, but her ceremony will happen on Sept. 30, 2025, because it’s the exact day 42 years ago she signed the contract to enlist in the Marine Corps.

"To say that I came in and saw so much progress for Marines, and especially female Marines, over my time is ... it hits me really hard,” said Martin, who plans to obtain a doctorate post-retirement, continuing her educational goals. "I feel very, very good about leaving the Marine Corps knowing it’s going to be in great hands."

Overall, Martin has experienced and supported the Corps through multiple deployments, missions, and exercises, including Operation Enduring Freedom and crises in the Philippines and Nepal. She has also served multiple overseas tours to include Japan and Bahrain.

"There have been good days and bad days, but I've always loved being an administrator, a mentor, and an officer."

Martin described her career as more than just a job—it was her passion and purpose: "I've been doing what I love to do for 40 years."

Now, Martin serves as the assistant chief of staff for manpower, MCB Quantico, where she will retire from.

"It’ll be tough, but I’ve had 42 years of doing what I love, and I’m leaving at a time when the Marine Corps is stronger than ever," she said, adding that it’s the best year to retire, as it’s the same year as the Marine Corps’ 250th birthday.

On another note, Stanton said if it’s one thing she wants everyone to learn from Martin, it’s to “not allow your time in service change who you are.”

“Rhonda had some way of not letting the Marine Corps take away her personality,” Stanton said. “She was always her true self, and the Marine Corps in some way enhanced her personality because she took the best parts of both.”

In a Rhonda fashion, Martin requests that all money in lieu of gifts or flowers be donated to the Marine Corps foundation for education of the guests’ choosing, so service members and their families have additional opportunities to pursue educational goals, advancing their careers and elevating their lives.

Editor’s note:
Many people were reached out to by the author of this article for an interview regarding Lt. Col. Rhonda C. Martin, and we appreciate everyone who has offered their time and accepted this interview. Not everyone was used within this article for the sake of brevity; however, every single person spoken to about Martin exhibited excitement and wanted to provide their perspective on Martin, illustrating the impact Martin has had on several people across the Marine Corps. Her striking laugh is seemingly famous across all those who encountered her.