Brennan Brennan

Lieutenant Colonel Patricia C. Brennan is the 2026-27 Department of the Air Force Fellow at The Washington Institute, where her work focuses on airpower and the implications of contemporary conflict for U.S. defense strategy and military operations.

Brennan was previously the commander of the 303d Intelligence Squadron at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, where she led 250 Airmen across U.S. and combined organizations supporting United States Forces Korea and Seventh Air Force. In this role, she led intelligence operations focused on regional security challenges, integrating intelligence with air operations and strengthening cooperation with U.S. and Republic of Korea partners.

Throughout her Air Force career, Brennan has served in operational, command, and staff assignments spanning intelligence, air operations, cyber, and signals intelligence. Her assignments have included the 609th Combined Air Operations Center in Qatar; Headquarters Air Combat Command's Directorate of Intelligence; the 1st Special Operations Wing; National Security Agency-Georgia; the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing; and the Secretary of the Air Force Executive Action Group. Her experience has focused primarily on security challenges in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific and on integrating intelligence with operational and strategic decision-making.

Brennan deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and to Qatar from 2017 to 2018 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. She is also a graduate of the Secretary of War's Strategic Thinkers Program at Johns Hopkins University, where her studies focused on war, strategy, civil-military relations, and interagency decision-making.