In September 2012, the Honorable Mo Brooks from Alabama paid a glowing tribute for the record in the United States House of Representatives about LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly. The tribute to the service and impressive career of LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly highlighted his accomplishments during his thirty-eight years of service. He had recently announced his retirement and Honorable Mo Brooks took it as an opportunity to compliment and acknowledge his career.

The tribute began with an overview of when LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly was a cadet at West Point and his first assignments as an officer in the operational Army. Congressman Brooks emphasized LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly’s commitment to education as indicated by his three graduate degrees in science, business and liberal arts and his earning an Associate Professor of Physics position at West Point. Patrick O’Reilly’s mid-career accomplishments were in successive project manager positions in the PATRIOT, THAAD and Ground-based Midcourse Defense programs. Congressman Brooks concluded the tribute by highlighting LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly’s achievements as a general officer including being responsible for the armoring of 38,000 vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan, three successful homeland defense flight tests, and his leadership of the eight thousand person Missile Defense Agency.

“It was fulfilling to look back on my own career. When you are living it and immersed in all of the deadlines, projects and activities, you do not always see what you and the people you are working with are accomplishing. After reading Congressman Brook’s tribute, recalls LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly, he reflected on his fortune for having the opportunity to be part of great accomplishments for our nation.

“My career was a series of opportunities to serve our nation in a meaningful way. I continually developed my leadership, management and military operational skills and was recognized for this by given greater responsibilities. I wouldn’t change the experiences I had for anything,” LT Gen Patrick O’Reilly said with pride. The tribute concluded with a heartwarming thank you to the general’s wife of 34 years and children who endured the stresses those military families quietly endure as they serve our nation too.