Joe Brennan is an agent with the CIA.
He has been an operative for quite a few years, nearly a dozen when we first meet him, working in a field that seemed to change every year. A former SEAL who had put in a fair number of years in that profession, the last several of the Navy years were certainly spent attached to or working closely with Langley because though it is stated that he had worked as a civilian with the CIA in the National Clandestine Service department for seven years when we first meet him, he has been married to an Agency analyst for over a decade.
Carolyn is his wife's name and they have two young children, Jessica and Josh. They are a very happy family but like all families there are some issues that have come up. For one, Carolyn is an up-and-comer at headquarters and the potential is strong that she will rise in stature. Brennan, on the other hand, has no interest in or time for playing the political game. For another, Carolyn's job allows her to come home each night, albeit sometimes late, while Brennan's work takes him routinely out of the country for weeks at a time.
In our first meeting with him, Brennan has started to rethink his lifestyle in that regards, musing that being gone so long so often is not what he really wants. And Carolyn also opined that "his kids deserved a father who was around, not one who used the spectre of honor and duty to his country to skip out of town whenever he felt the itch."
Already mentioned that this 6' tall athletic agent did not play the hobnobbing game well, Brennan has had more than a couple of run-ins with desk jockeys who do play it and has rubbed wrong more than one person. According to someone higher up the chain, "Brennan was the kind of troublemaking know-it-all who would interject with a problem whenever possible." Obviously, the two did not get along very well.