Our 2021 Grand Marshal Aiyanna Coleman — whose selection was inspired by the “Spirit of Valor” five-year legacy medal series — is an Army veteran with experience in a combat zone. During her deployment to Iraq from June 2006 to September 2007, she was assigned to an Army infantry unit. She went on her first mission with 2nd Battalion 3rd Infantry Division. “As a female searcher, I was tasked to search female foreign nationals during our targeted raids or house to house searches.”
“There were many female soldiers that had experienced combat: military police, truck drivers, supply and anyone on a convoy, but now females were going out with the infantry to perform searches.”
While Aiyanna’s presence as the 2021 Grand Marshal represents female veterans being recognized on this year’s finisher medals, she also has deep ties to 3rd Battalion 5th Marines — the unit for whom the race is named, and from which have come all prior Grand Marshals. Her husband is USMC (Ret.) Lance Corporal Jorge Ortiz, a combat camera veteran of the 3/5. They met in 2012 during her volunteer work as a Massage Therapist at Balboa’s Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care. They married in 2015 and their son, Leo, was born in 2017. Jorge served as the Grand Marshal of the race in 2016.
Aiyanna has attended the City race 4 times and run the race twice.
When asked what she would want people to think about, reflect upon, or know about Memorial Day, Aiyanna offered this advice:
“People should understand that we chose this job. That it comes with doing things the rest of the world may or may not like. Have respect for the person that chose to do that job. Respect that they chose a job that the mass majority would not choose, and they died because they were trying to protect who they stood next to, who also chose this job. That it comes with doing things the rest of the world may or may not like.”