Some context: Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 - 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey-Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and centred on the friendship of the English naval captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish-Catalan physician Stephen Maturin. The 20-novel series, the first of which is Master and Commander, is known for its well-researched and highly detailed portrayal of early 19th-century life, as well as its authentic and evocative language. A partially finished 21st novel in the series was published posthumously containing facing pages of handwriting and typescript. O'Brian wrote a number of other novels and short stories, most of which were published before he achieved success with the Aubrey-Maturin series.
O'Brian was born Richard Patrick Russ, in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, to Charles Russ, an English physician of German descent, and Jessie Russ (nee Goddard), an English woman of Irish descent. The eighth of nine children, O'Brian lost his mother at the age of four, and his biographers describe a fairly isolated childhood, limited by poverty, with sporadic schooling and long intervals at home with his father and stepmother Zoe Center in Lewes, East Sussex. His literary career began in his childhood with the publishing of his earliest works, including several short stories, the book "Hussein, An Entertainment", and the short story collection Beasts Royal; the latter two brought him considerable critical praise especially considering his youth. He published his first novel at age 15, Caesar: The Life Story of a Panda Leopard, with help from his father. In 1934, he underwent a brief period of pilot training with the Royal Air Force, but this was not successful, and he left the RAF. Prior to that, his application to the Royal Navy had been rejected on health grounds. In 1935, he was living in London, where he married his first wife, Elizabeth Jones, in 1936. They had two children. The second was a daughter who suffered from spina bifida; she died in 1942, aged three, in a country village in Sussex. When the child died, O'Brian had already returned to London, where he worked throughout the war. The details of his work during the Second World War are murky. He worked as an ambulance driver, and he stated that he worked in intelligence. Dean King has claimed that O'Brian was actively involved in intelligence work and perhaps special operations overseas during the war. Indeed, despite his usual extreme reticence about his past, O'Brian wrote in an essay, "Black, Choleric and Married?", included in the book Patrick O'Brian: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography (1994) that: "Some time after the blitz had died away I joined one of those intelligence organisations that flourished during the War, perpetually changing their initials and competing with one another. Our work had to do with France, and more than that I shall not say, since disclosing methods and stratagems that have deceived the enemy once and that may deceive him again seems to me foolish. After the war we retired to Wales (I say we because my wife and I had driven ambulances and served in intelligence together) where we lived for a while in a high Welsh-speaking valley..." which confirms in first person the intelligence connection, as well as introducing his wife Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy as a co-worker and fellow intelligence operative. Nikolai Tolstoy, stepson through O'Brian's marriage to Mary Tolstoy, disputes this account, confirming only that O'Brian worked as a volunteer ambulance driver during the Blitz. Doing this work, he met Mary, the separated wife of Russian-born nobleman and lawyer Count Dimitri Tolstoy. They lived together through the latter part of the war and, after both were divorced from their previous spouses, they married in July 1945. The following month he changed his name by deed poll to Patrick O'Brian.
Did he serve in military?
A: he underwent a brief period of pilot training with the Royal Air Force, but this was not successful,
Some context: Ai Carina Uemura (Zhi Cun Ai karina, Uemura Ai Karina, born November 2, 1981), known mononymously as Ai (Japanese pronunciation: [ai], stylized as AI or A.I. ) is a Japanese-American singer and songwriter who was born in Los Angeles. Ai spent her childhood in both Kagoshima, Japan and Los Angeles. She debuted as a singer in 2000, later moving to Def Jam Japan and rising to fame with her album 2004 Ai.
As is standard for Japanese musicians, Ai has featured as a spokesperson, or has her music featured, for many products. Ai's songs have been used as TV commercial songs, drama theme songs, film theme songs and TV show ending theme songs. Ai has worked on four major Coca-Cola TV commercial campaigns, two featuring her own songs ("You Are My Star" (2009), "Happiness" (2011)) and two featuring collaborations (K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" (2009), Namie Amuro's "Wonder Woman" (2011)). She has also been featured in two Audio-Technica campaigns (using "My Friend (Live Version)" and "I'll Remember You", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know." Ai's most high-profile work for a TV drama was the theme song for 2006's primetime drama Team Medical Dragon, "Believe", which was one of her greatest hits, selling over one million ringtones. Ai also sung the theme song for the drama's second series, "One." Ai also worked on the theme song for the 2010 primetime drama Keishicho Keizoku Sosahan, "Nemurenai Machi." Other program theme songs include the Japanese theme song for the American drama Heroes ("Taisetsu na Mono"), and the 15th ending theme for the children's animation Crayon Shin-chan, "Crayon Beats"). In 2005, Ai's song "Alive (English Version)" was used as an insert song for the South Korean drama Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang. Many of Ai's songs have been used in films. Her "Story" song was remade (also with its English version) for Disney's box office Big Hero 6 in 2014. She performed the theme song for Departures (2008), the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. She has also sung the theme songs for Crayon Shin-chan: The Legend Called Buri Buri 3 Minutes Charge (2005), Pray (2005), Lalapipo (2009) and Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the High King (2012). Her music has been featured on the soundtracks of TKO Hiphop (2005), the musical film Memories of Matsuko (2006), in which Ai cameoed to perform the song, and Heat Island (2007).
what did she endorse for?
A:
", a campaign for Japan Airlines ("Brand New Day") and Pepsi Nex with "I Wanna Know."