Amy McGrath graduated from the Naval Academy in 1997, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science. She was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps.] She later earned a master’s degree in International and Global Security at Johns Hopkins University. She is a retired combat aviator in the United States Marines who was the first female marine to fly in an F/A-18 on a combat mission. Amy’s awards include two Meritorious Service Medals, eight Strike Flight Air Medals, Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, two Afghan and one Iraq Campaign medals. McGrath worked at Representative Susan Davis’s office in Washington, D.C. as a defense and foreign affairs advisor in 2011. The next year she worked at Headquarters Marine Corps as a liaison at the Pentagon. McGrath retired from the armed forces on June 1, 2017. She is married and has three children.