OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Georgia Parment has been serving our community as a real estate agent for almost five years in Omaha — helping lead families through the biggest transactions of their lives.
On top of that, she has served our country as a marine for more than two decades, as she continues to move up the ranks. Ranks that many marines, especially women, haven't reached.
“I never imagined that 24 years later I would still be serving, but also picking up the rank of Colonel.”
Her military journey started in 1999. She was preparing to graduate from York College still unsure what was next.
She was on the phone with her brother, who was serving in the United States Marine Corps and suggested she looked into the Marine Corps Officer Program.
“The rest was history. I mean, I think two months, three months later I was at Marine Corps Officer training in Quantico, Virginia,” Parment said.
She was first stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Throughout her active-duty career, Parment traveled around the world and country, including a voluntary station in Iraq in 2008.
Her last international station ended in Germany in 2018.
But her service has continued.
She transitioned to the reserves in 2003. Since 2018, she has served as a USMC Lieutenant Colonel while living in Omaha. Serving as the marine liaison to FEMA, and the military support they may require in a disaster situation in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.
“A really rewarding job to have to be able to live in your community but also support them if a natural disaster happens in the area,” she said.
Now, as colonel, she will be the operations manager for a unit in New Orleans.
The rank is a remarkable achievement. Even more so as a woman.
“I think the latest number I heard was it’s around 8% of the entire Marine Corps is women and then, of course, it’s fewer when you start pairing it down to officers,” Parment said.
Less than 2% of all marine officers reach the rank of colonel.
There are currently 877 USMC colonels — just 64 are women.
“I really look back at the women who were serving 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 60 years ago —and just know they began laying the framework and the groundwork to get to where we are today,” she said.
When she first joined the service specialties like infantry and artillery were off-limits for women. That changed in 2016.
“In my 20-plus years, I mean, the progression of where women were back then and what they can do now - there’s constant improvement,” Parment said.
Her pride and commitment to service only continue to grow.
“It’s a huge honor and I love to serve,” she said. “I just feel very passionately about.”
Another thing the marines have given Parment — her husband, Chad. The two met at Marine Corps Officer Training in 1999.
On top of her real estate and marine work, she is a member of the Marine Corps League (Omaha Chapter - Miguel Keith Detachment #609), Women Marine Association (NE-1 Grace Carl), Greater Omaha Chamber, and the Women’s Fund of Omaha Circles Program.
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