Brinson assumes commission seat

Larry Brinson took his seat for the first time on the Ocoee City Commission during the March 19 meeting. 

Before doing so, the U.S. Marine Corps veteran was joined by friends, family and loved ones for his swearing-in ceremony. They exchanged hugs and laughs as they gathered and posed for photos with Ocoee’s newest commissioner. Afterward, he made his way to the dais and began a new chapter of his life. 

"Here we go," Brinson thought.

It might have been Brinson’s first night on the commission, but it wasn’t the first time he’s served others. In the 20 years he served in the Marines, he worked in embassies around the world and even at the Pentagon. During his service, Brinson witnessed firsthand Operation Desert Storm and the attack on the Pentagon during 9/11.

Before the Marines
Brinson, 54, was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. From an early age, he always knew he wanted to be a Marine.

“I was at a relative’s house when I was 7 or 8 years old,” Brinson said. “I saw a commercial, and it was a Marine Corps commercial. It was these guys jumping out of these vehicles. I didn’t know what they were, but I knew they were military vehicles. … I realized, ‘Hey, that looks pretty fun.’ From (age) 7 forward, I always wanted to be a Marine just from watching that one commercial.”

At 17, Brinson walked into a recruitment office for the Marines. The recruiters didn’t have to do or say much to convince him to join, but there was still one thing in the way of him being a Marine. Before enlisting, he had to ask his parents to sign off on his enlistment because of his age. When he approached them about it, they weren’t happy. 

“Looking back … to ask my parents to allow their newly graduated, 17-year-old son to go off into the Armed Forces of the United States was a really big ask,” Brinson said. “My mom was stoic, but as I look back and revisit that (moment), I could see that she was a little more than worried. My dad — who had served in the Army for a period of time — was like, ‘Marines? I can’t believe you’re going to try and go to the Marines. It’s going to be the worst decision you’ll ever make,’ which is actually probably one of the best things he could say to me, because that was another log on my fire. Anytime when I was in the Marines and things were getting tough, I remembered that comment my dad made and thought, ‘There’s no way I’m giving him the satisfaction of me leaving the Marine Corps until I’m ready.’”

Marine Life
Brinson enlisted in the Marines in June 1982 and retired in 2002 as a gunnery sergeant. In those 20 years, he traveled to more than 20 different countries. He was never one to stay at base when he was stationed in different countries. He always made an effort to experience what a country offers.

“I went to Japan, went to Korea, went to the Philippines, went to Guam,” Brinson said. “...You can really get stuck on the military installations because they’re societies within a society. You literally do not have to leave the base for anything. You can go to a base and not leave that base for two years because (it has) everything. … I didn’t want to be (like) that. Everywhere I went, I wanted to experience that (country) because I knew that (I) may never come this way again.”

In 1989, Brinson began doing embassy duty, and his first assignment was in Burundi, Africa.

“It was always dangerous (doing) embassy duty,” Brinson said. “No matter what country you’re in … any place in the world can be dangerous, but some places are more dangerous than others. The countries that I was posted in at these embassies, it was more dangerous than not.”

Brinson originally was told he would be sent to an embassy in Madagascar after Burundi, but those plans changed. Instead, he was sent to Tel Aviv in Israel in 1990 around the same time that Operation Desert Storm was about to begin.

“We had some people from the embassy whose homes got hit with missiles and family members whose homes got hit with missiles,” he said. “A building near where the Marines were housed got hit with missiles, so we had all of that combat going on.”

After serving in Israel during Desert Storm, Brinson returned in 1991 to the U.S. In the years that followed, he worked in other roles such as hazardous-material management and as a wing inspector. In November 2000, he selected to work at the headquarters of the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. He was hesitant about working at the Pentagon because he was less than two years away from retirement.

A decade later, he was stationed at the Pentagon during one of the darkest moments in American history: the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Sept. 11 comes around,” Brinson said. “I get to work and I can’t understand why my computer is so slow. I get on the internet, (and the) internet is really slow. … I looked at my Blackberry (and) my Blackberry is slow. Then I took out my cell phone, and I couldn’t get a call out of my cell phone.”

Shortly thereafter, he was told that the country was under attack. He recalls watching the moment on TV where President George W. Bush is told about the attacks on the World Trade Center when the Pentagon was hit.

“I was thrown across the room, and I’m assuming I was knocked out,” he recalls after a plane was flown into the Pentagon. “When I looked up, there was some guy standing over me saying, ‘Brinson, get up! Brinson, get up!’ I bounced up and realized that the Pentagon had got hit by something.”

Brinson, along with everyone else, was sent home after the attack on the Pentagon. He was back at work two days later. 

“It was tough, but it provided (me) with a learning experience, and now a skill set, in crisis management,” he said. 

Today, Brinson works at the Orlando Police Department handling inventory and mailroom services. He’s married to his wife, Paula Taylor Brinson, and they have one son. They have lived in Ocoee for about 13 years.