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Commissioner juggles roles

• Jo Ealum begins 10 weeks of rigorous Marine Corps officer training today.

Susan McCord

LEESBURG — Elected a Lee County Commissioner when she was just 21, at 24 Jo Ealum today begins Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Va.

Ealum and her sister, Susie, and a cousin were already in Quantico Thursday, getting ready for the first day of school, Ealum said.

“More than anything, I am excited about it,” said Ealum. “We have certainly been preparing ourselves for it.”

Similar to Marine Corps basic training, Officer Candidate School involves 10 weeks of non-stop classes and training that are “both physically and mentally rigorous,” she said.

Candidates may write letters home or use a pay phone but have limited contact with friends and family, she said.

As recent college graduates of the University of Georgia, she and Susie were eligible for officer school, which unlike basic training, allows participants limited leave hours after a few weeks, Ealum said.

Their father, Darrell Ealum, also became a Marine officer after his graduation from college, according to a family Web site.

“If everything goes in our favor,” Ealum said, “we’ll both come out as Second Lieutenants Aug. 8.”

Their cousin, Adam, also will seek to become a commissioned officer in the Marine Corps.

“Ultimately, we’ll all be officers,” Ealum said.

Once commissioned, all Marine officers attend The Basic School, to learn to run a rifle platoon, Art Powell, public affairs specialist at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany said.

“Every man a rifleman,” the saying goes, Powell said.

Upon completion of TBS the officers are assigned to a unit, he said.

Once commissioned, Ealum also reaches a milestone in her political career. She becomes ineligible to hold elected office.

Marines who complete OCS can delay accepting their commission for up to a year and remain eligible to hold office, Powell said.

Contacted Thursday, Ealum indicated she was aware of her options, either to delay accepting her commission or resign her post on the Lee Board of Commissioners, MCLB Public Affairs Officer Second Lt. Caleb Eames said.

Ealum’s term on the commission would end Dec. 31, and she did not qualify to run for reelection in the November election. Two people, Norman Hoover and Betty Johnson, will face off in the July Republican primary for the Leesburg District commission seat.

If Ealum does resign the seat and has less than six months remaining in her term, Lee County code does not require the post to be filled until the new term begins.

As a Marine, she’ll always retain a “home of record” of her choice, such as her current Lee County address, Powell said.

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