Sarah MacKenzie

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Lt. Colonel Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie, USMC (played by Catherine Bell) is one of the main characters in the JAG TV series.

In her first appearance on the show, she was seen as a Major, but was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the 5th season. In the final episode of the series Mac was selected as the commander of Joint Legal Service Center Southwest, a JAG office in San Diego, CA. It is not known if she takes this position since the ending was left to the audience's imagination. She and Captain Harmon "Harm" Rabb become engaged and decided to flip a coin to see who will resign their commission.

1 Biography
2 Awards and Decorations
3 Trivia
4 Sources

[edit] Biography

Born in 1967, Sarah MacKenzie had a troubled childhood; her mother abandoned her and her alcoholic father on the night of Mac's 15th birthday. Her father, Joseph MacKenzie, was physically abusive towards her mother, and emotionally and verbally abusive to Mac. As a partial result of this, Mac became an alcoholic in her early teens and had no contact with her mother until she reappeared at Joseph's deathbed.^{[citation needed]}. She also learns at this time that her large white mutt, named Ruggles, was abandoned at a boarding house during her mother's travels after fleeing from her abusive father (episode 04.20).

Mac ran away from home when she was 17 (her junior year of high school), and apparently married Christpher Ragle a year later. They were both drunk for much of their married life. He was later arrested and sent to prison for Motor vehicle theft. At some point, Mac finished high school. On the night of her graduation, she was traveling in a car with her friend Eddie. They were both drunk, and were involved in a car accident that killed Eddie. Mac hit her low as an alcoholic, and her uncle Colonel Matthew O'Hara (USMC) took her to Red Rock Mesa, Arizona, to dry out.

After graduating from high school, Mac joined the Marines. After graduating from Officer Candidate School, she was stationed as a First Lieutenant in Okinawa, Japan, as an Administration Officer under John Farrow. It was under his recommendation that the Marine Corps put Mac through law school.

While stationed in Okinawa, Mac engaged in an affair with her superior officer John Farrow. Unbeknownst to Mac, Chris Ragle followed her to Okinawa and discovered the affair. When he caught up to Mac at JAG headquarters, Chris attempted to use this information to blackmail Mac for money. John paid Chris the money he demanded, but Chris threatened to kill him anyway. Mac tried to wrestle the gun out of Chris' hand, but it accidentally went off and killed him instead.

Mac received her Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and her Law Degree from Duke University, and was subsequently stationed in Bosnia during the war there.

As a Major, she was subsequently assigned to JAG headquarters. After a brief absence from JAG in 1997 (during which she worked as an attorney at Lowell, Hanson and Lowne), she was temporarily assigned Head of Administration. Upon her return she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, partially due to Admiral A.J. Chegwidden's renewall of her recommendation for accelerated promotion.^{[citation needed]}

Mac bore an uncanny resemblance to Lt. Diane Schonke, a Navy officer Harm had been dating before she was murdered, which initially made Harm uneasy, though he soon got past it. (This was an in-show explanation, as Catherine Bell had played Schonke in an early episode before joining the cast as Mac).

Mac possesses both Comanche and Iranian ancestry, and is fluent in Farsi (as well as speaking Russian very well), capable of recognizing a native Iranian speaker of the language by her accent. (Bell, whose mother is Iranian, is fluent in Farsi in real life.)

She and Harm eventually (after years of denial) proclaimed their love to each other and - despite Mac's inability to have a child - decided to get married in the last episode.

[edit] Awards and Decorations

In Order of Precedence

[edit] Trivia

Mac was presented her Meritorious Service Medal for organizing the defense of The US Embassy in Indonesia, after the Marine Guard Detachment suffered casualties.