[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3687]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING GILBERT HORN, SR.

 Mr. DAINES. Madam President, today I wish to honor Gilbert 
Horn, Sr., an Assiniboine Tribal member and Montanan who exemplified 
leadership throughout his life. He passed away on March 27, at the age 
of 92.
  Gilbert Horn was born May 23, 1923, on the Fort Belknap Indian 
reservation in Montana. He was an Assiniboine chief, decorated war 
hero, WWII combat veteran, and code talker. In 1940 he entered the U.S. 
Army at the young age of 17. He was a member of the 163rd Infantry 
Battalion. Chief Horn received training in communication and 
encryption. He then volunteered to be a code talker using his native 
Assiniboine Tribe language to disguise U.S. military communications 
against the Japanese.
  He volunteered for the Merrill's Marauders, a deep penetration unit 
commanded by MG Frank Merrill. They spent 5 months of field operations 
in Burma and western China and completed an 800-mile journey across the 
Himalaya Mountains in order to cut Japanese communications and supply 
lines. Chief Horn survived the journey with chest, back, and jaw 
wounds. He was honorably discharged, having received the Purple Heart 
and the Bronze Star.
  After returning to the Fort Belknap Indian reservation he served as 
chairman and council member of the Fort Belknap Community Council. He 
was awarded an honorary doctorate in humanitarian services from MSU 
Northern in 2013. Then in 2014 he had the honor of being named the 
honorary chief of the Fort Belknap Assiniboine Tribe, a title that had 
not been awarded since the 1890s.
  I extend my condolences to his family and to the entire Fort Belknap 
Indian community. We have lost a true American and a great 
Montanan.

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