Retired Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Ja’nelle E. Lampkin joined the Marine Corps in January 2003. After graduating boot camp from Perris Island, South Carolina, she reported to her first duty station in Camp Pendleton, CA. In 2005 after having served a few years she gave birth to her daughter Gabrielle Mya and before being assigned to Okinawa, Japan.

Ja’nelle became a single mother early in her daughter’s life and dedicated her motherhood to teaching her daughter the value of understanding cultural differences, showing her what success could look like as a single black woman and creating an overwhelming environment full of love and compassion. Ja’nelle became the ultimate “soccer mom”. From coaching all Gabrielle’s sports, volunteering for position that was an influence on her daughter, being an active member on several community and school boards, Ja’nelle made an impactful breakthrough in her community. In 2010 she was assigned to 12th Marine Corps Recruiting District. Her time as a Recruiter quickly progressed. Winning Rookie Recruiter of the Year and taking over her own Recruiting sub-station in less than 1 1/2 years on tour, Ja’nelle decided to start a developmental mentorship program for school students as a Youth Ambassador.

From building community relationships and teaming with the Fontana City Mayor to promote community student success Ja’nelle became a mogul in the recruiting world in building relationships. Making the hard decision to leave recruiting to dedicate more time to her daughter, excelling in her career did not stop. Ja’nelle became a local Realtor while serving as the Distribution Management Passenger Travel Chief at Camp Pendleton. After having a fast excelling career Ja’nelle abruptly made the decision along with her daughter to submit for early retire. Ja’nelle retired her career at Camp, Pendleton CA where she first started, in great expectation of being a full-time soccer mom seeing her daughter threw high school and college.

The unbreakable bound ended tragically when her daughter committed suicide in March of 2020. Losing her entire world and impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, Ja’nelle has shown unsurmountable resilience in being self-aware and using life experiences, her education background and living just one more day.