Margaret Skur

Dr. Margaret Skur PhD MDA
Skur in 2005
Native name	睢墀, skur-dre
Other name(s)	旨君, ki′-qur
Born	(1959-01-03) January 3, 1959 Lord K′ro Hospital, Kien-k'ang
Allegiance	Themiclesia
Service/branch	Themiclesian Marines
Years of service	1987 –
Rank	Colonel-general
Spouse(s)	La Kem (余甘)
Children	2

Dr. Margaret Skur PhD MDA (Shinasthana: 睢墀, skur-dre; Jan. 3, 1959 – ) is a Themiclesian military officer. As of Jan. 2020, she is Captain-general of Marines and the first woman in Themiclesian history to hold this position.

Her predecessor, Geoffrey Ghwang, said that he did not know her in his apology on The Capital Correspondent; however, it seems Skur believed this was a statement made under pressure, to stress that he had no role in influencing her appointment.

Career

Skur graduated with a bachelor's degree in computing mathematics in 1975 and progressed to that of a doctor in 1984, publishing her dissertation on the interpretation of analogue radio to digital data. After working at the Data Processing Corporation for three years, she was commissioned in the Marines as a captain, and from this position she participated in the development of computerized interpretation systems. Her home regiment was the Upper Naval Engineers, whose sole company worked in the deployment of data processing systems and training for their use. She was made a major 1992 and a lieutenant-colonel in 1997. In 2001, she was advanced to the colonelcy of the Upper Naval Engineers, being the first female officer in that unit to achieve this distinction.

She obtained a noted advancement in 2004 when appointed to head the Naval Signals Service with a secondary position in the training for digital competence. Skur also authored the 834-page chapter "Working With Digital Data: a Concise Conspectus" in the Revised General Introduction to the Divers Regiments and Companies in the Marine Corps and Their Respective Functions in Five Volumes, &c. &c., Appended hereunto Being Six New Chapters and Edited a Third Time inasmuch as the Older Chapters Being Concerned and According to Ordinances under the Ministerial Sign-Manual and Other Pertinent Requirements, with a New Preface by the Secretary of State, and Indices of Said Regiments and Companies and Their Incumbent Officers and Maps with Revised Street-Names for the Convenience of the Pursuance of Their Locations, which was required reading for newly-enlisted marines during their basic training.

While she was slated to become Captain-general upon the retirement of Colonel Tam C. in 2016, an error attributed to her subordinates prevented her appointment and instead defaulted the position to the second favourite, Geoffrey Ghwang L′ei. Ghwang was very reliant on Skur's advice as she had been groomed for the position. When Ghwang vacated the office in 2019, she obtained it and became the first female officer to lead the Marines in Themiclesia.

Personal life

Skur is married to La Kem (b. 1959, m. 1986), who is a senior editor at the Times of Kien-k'ang; with him she has two children, a boy (b. 1989) and a girl (b. 1993).

Dispute in the ATW

In 1999, Skur was chosen by the Association of Themiclesian Women one of 100 female military officers to recount their experiences about gendered issues in the armed forces. A symposium was then held for them in early 2000, after their statements were collected and published; Skur was involved in an argument with the then-president of the ATW, Ms. Mrangh Kaw. On stage, Ms. Kaw commented that Skur's response to the prompts was not as detailed as she would have preferred, since Skur the highest-ranking officer (then a lieutenant-colonel) in the Marine Corps selected. Skur took exception to this comment, saying that her specialization was in computer science, not in feminist scholarship, so her responses are "impoverished". Kaw then asked if her high rank did not give her any insight into gendered relationships in her branch; to this Skur responded that her rank "is neither here nor there", which solicited some hostility from the other officers in the symposium. Shortly after this, Skur interrupted Kaw and accused her of "defending an absurd power structure that all lieutenant-colonels speak with equal authority on every subject." Kaw denied that she meant this, but Skur refused to speak to her for the rest of the event.

Twitter

Skur has since her appointment been personally active in managing the Marines' Twitter account and emphasized the publication of "slice of life" moments in her force. She has launched a campaign to document and celebrate the anniversaries of all 693 statutory regiments in the regular army, of which only 27 are technically in the Marine Corps. The confectionary at the Marines' HQ has echoed her policy by preparing a birthday cake on each of these occasions, though some of their creations, obviously taxed in creativity, have garnered less success when published on Twitter. One of such was a battery-shaped cake made for the Royal Signals Corps's 299th anniversary, which many servicepeople in that unit have taken as a jab at the notion that the RSC's only job was to change batteries.

Relationship with Ghwang L'ei

Skur and Geoffrey Ghwang L′ei knew each other since university and shared a small house on campus, though they were not on amiable terms with each other. Skur was fiercely political, while Ghwang was generally pessimistic and dismissive about the country's politics. In 1984, both left school to pursue their respective careers, Skur in computing and Ghwang in archaeology; however, by 1987 both had been commissioned by the Marines, and they even shared the same office building again. According to Gwjang, their difference slowly abated, and the bond of their alma mater became a lifeline in the sectarian working environment. The Kien-k'ang City University, though well-regarded in Themiclesia, was under-represented in the Marines, most of whose officers graduated from officer seminars in the Western University or the Army Academy (which, despite its name, is a liberal arts university). In the 80s and 90s, the officer seminars at various universities differed significantly, and their graduates often become staunch defenders of the merits of their respective seminars.

Honours

• Outstanding Service Medal in 1990, which was instituted in 1841 and was awarded to every Marines officer upon completion of three years under commission.
• Winter Solstice Honours in 1997 for supervision a major digital infrastructure upgrade that completed before schedule; this was awarded to one officer every year.
• Middle Order of Authors (postnominal MDA) in 2002 for best speaker at the inter-service forum for digital infrastructure, voted by conference attendees.

See also

• Themiclesia