thedrifter
01-28-09, 05:37 AM
Slain Marine Lance Cpl. Julian Brennan's wedding secret
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, January 28th 2009, 12:46 AM
A professionally trained actor before he joined the Marines, Lance Cpl. Julian Brennan had a gift for improvisation.
And before he shipped out to Afghanistan in November, he did something on the spur of the moment - he secretly married his fiancée.
"They were going to have a big family celebration when he returned," Brennan's father, Bill, said Tuesday.
Bill Brennan and his wife, Thya Merz, learned of the marriage only this week, when two Marines arrived at their Brooklyn home with news that their 23-year-old son was killed in action.
"One of the most heartbreaking things of all of this is they were really planning their life together," Merz said.
The young Marine and his bride met at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in 2004.
Brennan graduated in 2006, got his Screen Actors Guild card and began lining up acting gigs while working as a carpenter on Martha Stewart's show.
He had always been interested in the military. His grandfather earned the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima during World War II, and he nearly enlisted after Sept. 11.
Still, when he sprung the news on his family one night in May, they were "speechless, which doesn't happen very often," said Merz, who runs a private school in Chelsea.
Julian and his father were playing dominoes and drinking beer when he said, "I have something to tell you."
"And when a 23-year-old says that, it could be anything," said Bill Brennan, a children's entertainer. "But we did not expect, 'I joined the Marines.'"
Two months later, he was on his way to Parris Island boot camp, where he finished second out of 680 recruits. Then it was off to Afghanistan, where he served in a weapons unit.
His mother last spoke to him on Inauguration Day - he was a Barack Obama supporter - and he expressed a "deep empathy" for the Afghan people.
His father called him a "happy and ethical warrior."
Brennan was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb while driving a Humvee. The family plans to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery with his grandfather.
His wife, Bettina Beard, will join the Brennans there. They told her not to come up this weekend because she's in a show.
"Julian would want her to do the play," his mother said.
tconnor@nydailynews.com
Ellie
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, January 28th 2009, 12:46 AM
A professionally trained actor before he joined the Marines, Lance Cpl. Julian Brennan had a gift for improvisation.
And before he shipped out to Afghanistan in November, he did something on the spur of the moment - he secretly married his fiancée.
"They were going to have a big family celebration when he returned," Brennan's father, Bill, said Tuesday.
Bill Brennan and his wife, Thya Merz, learned of the marriage only this week, when two Marines arrived at their Brooklyn home with news that their 23-year-old son was killed in action.
"One of the most heartbreaking things of all of this is they were really planning their life together," Merz said.
The young Marine and his bride met at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in 2004.
Brennan graduated in 2006, got his Screen Actors Guild card and began lining up acting gigs while working as a carpenter on Martha Stewart's show.
He had always been interested in the military. His grandfather earned the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima during World War II, and he nearly enlisted after Sept. 11.
Still, when he sprung the news on his family one night in May, they were "speechless, which doesn't happen very often," said Merz, who runs a private school in Chelsea.
Julian and his father were playing dominoes and drinking beer when he said, "I have something to tell you."
"And when a 23-year-old says that, it could be anything," said Bill Brennan, a children's entertainer. "But we did not expect, 'I joined the Marines.'"
Two months later, he was on his way to Parris Island boot camp, where he finished second out of 680 recruits. Then it was off to Afghanistan, where he served in a weapons unit.
His mother last spoke to him on Inauguration Day - he was a Barack Obama supporter - and he expressed a "deep empathy" for the Afghan people.
His father called him a "happy and ethical warrior."
Brennan was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb while driving a Humvee. The family plans to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery with his grandfather.
His wife, Bettina Beard, will join the Brennans there. They told her not to come up this weekend because she's in a show.
"Julian would want her to do the play," his mother said.
tconnor@nydailynews.com
Ellie