From the Battlefield to the Newsroom: How a Former Marine Continues to Serve

An ominous mission ​

​One day the unit was tasked with a mission to push the enemy deeper into the city. Even before the patrol began, Brennan did not have a good feeling about the assignment and felt something bad was coming. As Brennan, O’Reilly and the other troops turned a corner in a muddy alleyway, a firefight broke out.​

​“I haven’t found any type of adrenaline that hits you the way that bullet whizzing by your head does,” Brennan said.​

​As Brennan ran into the line of fire, O’Reilly stood behind, taking pictures of the firefight and capturing an Afghan police officer who was lining up a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) to fire in the direction of the Taliban. ​

He missed the enemy, and struck a telephone pole, causing the RPG to explode directly over Brennan and another Marine.​

​“And then I heard the booms and the machine guns and rockets. My guys ran through a wall of bullets and grabbed us and pulled us back,” Brennan said. ​

​Four Marines had been wounded during the firefight. O’Reilly came to the aid of Brennan, helping him stay on route, walking beside him with his hand hooked around his arm. ​

​“That’s when Finn really went from being a reporter to being a fellow human,” Brennan said.​

Within hours of the firefight, O’Reilly’s photos were published online. But for Brennan, his Marine Corps career was over, after being diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic-stress disorder due to the battle.​
 

Embedded journalist Finnbar O'Reilly (left) with squad leader Thomas Brennan in Afghanistan, 2010.

Thomas Brennan

​A new chance to serve ​

Upon returning home, Brennan recalls pushing his wife and daughter away, disengaging and falling into a drinking habit. “I needed to accept the fact that I was never going to get over what I went through. Combat is loud, chaotic, fear, anger, sadness. It’s got all the emotions,” he said.​

​As a result, he started therapy but didn’t know where to begin. Due to his brain injury, he was struggling to put words together verbally, so his therapist recommended writing down his thoughts. From there he just started writing and writing. Eventually, he wrote a thank-you letter to O’Reilly for his photos and to tell him how much the images helped him recover in therapy. ​

​Brennan sent the note to a New York Times editor whom O’Reilly had worked with while embedded in Afghanistan. They had exchanged messages the year prior when fact-checking O’Reilly’s account. Brennan was hoping simply to get some grammar help before sending the letter to O’Reilly. But, just a few hours later, the editor asked if The New York Times could publish the piece he submitted.​

​Although journalism was never on Brennan’s radar, he recognized through this process the need for reporting that bridges the military and civilian divide. So, in 2014, he attended Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he developed his plan for the War Horse and raised money online to make his dream a reality.​

​Today, the publication has won top industry awards and has most recently covered burn pits, toxic exposure, the criminal justice system, gender issues in uniform and health care, and has served as a vehicle for first-person reflections, representing all eras of service. ​

​“The military’s job is to win our wars. And if we can help hold people accountable in a way that makes sure that our experiment and democracy survives, that’s what I see our mission as. That’s what drives me. Journalism is another opportunity to serve,” Brennan said.​

This is the seventh episode from AARP Studios’ new documentary series Reporting for Duty. Each month you can expect a new inspirational story about veterans and military families at YouTube.com/aarp​