Commissioned into the United States Army in 1967 as a second lieutenant, Terry Brennen spent his first tour of duty with the tank battalion in Gelnhausen, Germany. But the young officer wanted to serve in Vietnam and applied for a transfer, which initially was refused. Undeterred, Brennen wrote to his local representative, Sen. Everett Dirksen of Chicago. One month later, he was transferred to the 82nd Airborne as tank platoon leader on patrol mostly in the marshy areas northwest of Saigon. A Cape Coral resident, Brennen served as WGCU Public Media’s director of community funding for 15 years before retiring.