#VeteranOfTheDay Navy Veteran Melissa Gregg

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Navy Veteran Melissa Gregg, who served as a military personnel administrator and public health programs manager.

Born in October 1981, Melissa Gregg grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. At the age of 18, she enlisted in the Navy because she wanted to travel and see the world.

She completed basic training at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois. There, Gregg enjoyed meeting new people and learning and experiencing new things. After completing basic training, she was assigned to the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, as a hospital corpsman.

Gregg worked as a military personnel administrator for her first seven years in the Navy. She served in various roles that ranged from processing and documentation to mentoring and coaching the professional development of junior employees. She also served as a safety inspector for San Diego, California-based ships.

In 2005, she deployed for four months with USNS Mercy to help Operation Unified Assistance — the United States’ effort to provide relief to the victims of the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia on Dec. 26. Gregg also served with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in 2007 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. They provided support for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

In April 2008, she transitioned to become a public health programs manager. She led 10 humanitarian aid operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and other Pacific Rim nations while serving on an American hospital ship. Gregg was part of the maiden voyage of USS Makin Island and a “plank owner.” She also served on the ship’s first deployment to 5th and 7th Fleet area of operations in 2011.

In 2012, Gregg became a preventative medicine clinic liaison in San Diego. She supervised 25 technicians who provided public health education and inspection for 75,000 personnel in California and Bahrain.

She earned her associate degree in emergency management in 2017. Gregg later received her bachelor’s degree in Homeland Security and Public Safety from Vincennes University in Indiana in 2020.

Over her military career, she traveled to many countries including Iraq, Hawaii, Guam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Jordan, Brazil, Peru and Chile. Gregg’s most notable awards include a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

In February 2021, she began working for the Us4Warriors Foundation in California. She oversees all food programming at the foundation, instructing nutrition education and promoting physical activity.

Thank you for your service!

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Contributors

Writer: Katherine Berman

Editor: Katherine Adams, Katie Wang

Fact checker: Lia Sansoucy

Graphic artist: Grace Yang