[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 21, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE MERITED SERVICE AND PROMOTION OF BRIGADIER GENERAL BRIEN 
                             PURCELL HORAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOE COURTNEY

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 21, 2023

  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a lifelong friend 
and fellow public servant, Brien P. Horan, who has just been promoted 
to Brigadier General on the military retired list of the state of 
Connecticut. On March 20, 2023, Brigadier General Horan invited me to 
join Major General Francis Evon, Commanding General of the Connecticut 
National Guard and Adjutant General of Connecticut, in pinning on his 
new rank at the promotion ceremony. This milestone event occurred at 
the William O'Neill State Armory, the headquarters of the Connecticut 
National Guard in Hartford, Connecticut, just adjacent to the State 
Capitol. Becoming a general officer represents not just a promotion, 
but recognition of his lifetime of service to our nation, at home and 
overseas, and to our state, which I ask my colleagues to join me in 
celebrating.
  Born in 1953 to Arthur and Eileen Horan, Brien was raised in the 
Hartford area where he was infused with a family tradition of public 
service. His father, a World War II veteran, was also an officer on the 
military retired list of Connecticut, as was his grandfather, a veteran 
of the Spanish-American War who was commissioned an infantry officer of 
the Connecticut National Guard back in 1899. Brien's father was a 
longtime aide to Abraham Ribicoff, Connecticut's Governor and U.S. 
Senator, and for several years ran the latter's Connecticut Senate 
office, where he was in charge of constituent services. His mother 
Eileen was for more than 20 years the registrar of voters in the Town 
of West Hartford, re-elected many times and recognized across the state 
for her expertise in election law. I first befriended General Horan as 
fellow altar boys at St. Timothy's Church in West Hartford in 1965 and 
as classmates at Northwest Catholic High School. Our long friendship 
gave me an opportunity to witness how deeply ingrained his parents' 
work as public servants affected his future desire to serve our nation. 
After high school, he earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College, 
spending a year of college at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, where he 
honed his fluency in the French language. After college, our 
educational paths crossed again, at the University of Connecticut's 
School of Law, where we both received our law degrees, mine in 1978 and 
his in 1979.
  After law school, Brien was commissioned as a reserve officer in the 
Army JAG Corps. In 1981, Captain Horan transitioned to active duty and 
served in West Germany for two years as a military prosecutor. Then 
from 1983 to 1985, he was in charge of the legal section of the U.S. 
Defense Attache Office at the American Embassy in Paris. After 
completing 4 years of active duty in Europe, he would remain in the 
Army Reserve as a judge advocate officer for another 26 years, 
including 10 years as a Colonel.
  As a Colonel, he was for several years the senior Army Reserve judge 
advocate assigned to U.S. Army Europe. Before that, from 2000 to 2004, 
he was the commander of the Army Reserve's JAGC unit for the six New 
England states, the 3rd Legal Support Organization in Boston. He 
directed the 3d LSO's provision of legal services to thousands of New 
England reservists mobilized after the 9/11 attacks. During Brien's 
command tenure, General Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff, chose 
the 3d LSO as one of only two Army Reserve units to receive the 
prestigious 2002 Army Chief of Staff Award for Legal Assistance. Before 
his promotion to Colonel, Brien also served as an international law 
faculty member at the JAG School in Charlottesville and as a judge 
advocate in the Army's Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon. He was 
awarded numerous decorations, including the Legion of Merit and four 
Meritorious Service Medals.
  In addition, Brigadier General Horan had a long association with the 
Connecticut Military Department, including attachment to the 
Connecticut National Guard, service in the state military, and 
appointment as a Colonel Aide-de-Camp to the Governor.
  In civilian life, Brien managed to alternate his private law practice 
with public service. He was long a partner in the Hartford law firm of 
Robinson & Cole and also was a vice president in the law department of 
The Hartford, one of the state's leading insurance carriers. But in the 
late 1980s, he worked as a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State 
Department, with diplomatic assignments at our embassies in Kingston, 
Jamaica and in Paris. And at the end of his legal career, he returned 
to public service, as a U.S. Administrative Law Judge sitting in New 
Haven, Connecticut. He retired as a judge in November 2020.
  Mr. Speaker, heartfelt congratulations are in order to Brigadier 
General Horan and to his sons, Nick and Doug, on his promotion to this 
high state rank and for his long military service. To that end, Mr. 
Speaker, I ask that my colleagues in the House join me in recognizing 
Brigadier General Brien Horan's long and distinguished service to our 
Nation and to my State.

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