From the day he joined the staff of newly-inaugurated President Richard Nixon in 1969 until his death Oct. 20 at age 86, retired Colonel (USMC) John V. "Jack" Brennan was unfailingly identified with the 37th president.
Following a tour of duty in Vietnam — in which he was wounded at the bloody battle of Khe Sanh in 1968 and earned both a Purple Heart and Bronze Star — the young Brennan was nominated by the Marine Corps to be the first-ever Marine Corps Aide to the president.
The whole nation glimpsed Brennan on April 7, 1969 as he stood over the shoulder of Nixon at the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and, like everyone else, watched him throw out not one but three ceremonial pitches at the opening game of the baseball season.
This game was particularly historic because it was the last in which the Washington Senators were the home team of the nation's capital before moving to become the Texas Rangers.
"I don't remember much about the game or anything else that day," Brennan recalled to Newsmax years later. "All I remember is that I got to meet Ted Williams!"
Baseball legend Williams, himself a decorated Marine pilot in World War II, was on his first day as manager of the Senators (who lost to the visiting New York Yankees by 8-4).
For more than five years, Brennan "saw it all."
He was almost always with Nixon at every major function and in his visits to more than 60 countries — including his historic trips to Beijing and Moscow.
Among his duties was carrying the storied "football" — the nuclear codes with which the president could launch missiles in the event of a nuclear war.
Nixon rarely failed to introduce Brennan to world leaders he was meeting and inevitably pointed out that his aide was a decorated Marine with an excellent combat record.
One who took an immediate liking to the burly, easy-going Marine was Soviet strongman Leonid Brezhnev, who later praised Brennan as a "man of machismo (aggressive masculine pride)."
In 1974, the whole world saw Brennan in uniform and medals in the East Room of the White House.
"Ladies and gentlemen," boomed Brennan's gravelly voice, "The President of the United States of America." Nixon then entered and, surrounded by staff and family, he became the first president in U.S. history to resign from office following the Watergate affair.
Although Brennan accompanied the Nixons from Washington to their home in San Clemente, California, his hope was to return to the Marine Corps and possibly secure a general's star. But Nixon's daughters, Julie and Tricia, helped persuade him to remain with their father.
Brennan soon switched to the Marine Corps Reserves, where he rose to full colonel in 1979, and became full-time chief of staff to the 37th president.
Brennan managed Nixon's schedule, oversaw the budget for his office, and assisted in the preparation of his memoirs. He also became Nixon's most frequent golfing companion.
But his most celebrated accomplishment was negotiating the terms that led to British interviewer David Frost sitting down in 1977 for his celebrated one-on-one televised sessions with Richard Nixon. The five ninety-minute sessions drew an audience of 45 million.
It also brought stardom to Brennan. He was one of the five characters in the hit 2006 stage play "Frost/Nixon" by British playwright Peter Morgan and, two years later, was portrayed in the film version by Kevin Bacon.
Brennan loved to say that six U.S. presidents called him by his first name. Ronald Reagan named him to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton had him in the White House as Director of the Administrative Operations Division of the Executive Office of the President.
Wherever Brennan went, it wasn't long before someone figured out who he was and who he knew and sought out reminiscences — which the retired colonel provided without hesitation.
When this reporter became engaged in 2001, he and his wife-to-be were treated to an engagement party at the Washington, D.C., home of onetime Reagan administration official Hal Furman and wife Sally.
The first guest at the party was Brennan, who was immediately asked about Nixon and other alumni of his administration. After replying with an anecdote, he was deluged by other guests who wanted to hear more.
As he waged a battle with lung cancer in his twilight months, Brennan didn't let it stop him from joining the 50th-anniversary reunion of Vietnam Prisoners of War at the Nixon Library and Museum in Southern California.
There, Brennan delivered an emotional address recalling Nixon's commitment to bringing home POWs in 1973 and how he honored them with a black-tie dinner at the White House.
"He was getting weaker and battling his illness," Vietnam POW and Marine veteran Orson Swindle told Newsmax. "I have great memories of our friendship with great friends — Marines, our pals from Basic School, his family and friends in the Palm Spring area, and his family and friends at his beloved home in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Jack was a great man and a great friend. He was a Marine."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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