Brent Scowcroft, the prominent former White House adviser, died Thursday at his home in Virginia.

Scowcroft, 95, was the only person to twice serve as White House national security adviser — first to President Gerald Ford in the mid-’70s and then to President George H.W. Bush.

The retired Air Force lieutenant general was born in Utah in 1925 and graduated from West Point in the aftermath of World War II in 1947. Shortly after training as a pilot, he broke his back in the crash-landing of an F-51 with engine trouble.

A lengthy recovery steered his career toward administrative roles in the newly created Air Force. He attended the Strategic Intelligence School in Washington and gained two advanced degrees from Columbia University.

Scowcroft held a variety of posts, including teaching roles at West Point and the Air Force Academy, before joining the Nixon White House. He was promoted to national security adviser in 1975.

Scowcroft led the US response to various Cold War challenges, including overseeing the final evacuation of Americans from South Vietnam and working toward an arms reduction pact with the Soviet Union.

Known as a sober assessor of world affairs, Scowcroft regarded himself as a Mormon, but freely admitted, “I like a glass of wine and a cup of coffee.”

He emerged as an increasingly prominent figure as he guided President Bush’s 1991 Gulf War to reverse Saddam Hussein’s conquest of Kuwait. He publicly opposed George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.