By MSgt. Bob Haskell, National Guard Bureau
There are all kinds of lawyers. Defense lawyers. Corporate lawyers. Real estate lawyers. Divorce lawyers. Jailhouse lawyers. For the next few months, Paul Hourihan of Washington, D.C., will be an infantry lawyer -- in a manner of speaking.
At 30, Hourihan is a junior attorney among the 150 lawyers who form the marquee firm Williams & Connolly in the nation's capital and who represent President and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
He is also a machine-gunner, an enlisted man, in a 147-man Virginia Army National Guard infantry company that this winter is guarding a bridge vital for military traffic over the Sava River that links Bosnia and Croatia.
Talk about contrasting lifestyles. Paul Hourihan last Labor Day left the world of federal litigation for nine months of straight-legged soldiering with a rifle platoon in Charlie Company of the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry. His pay as a specialist, the equivalent of a corporal, will be about 25 percent of his salary as an attorney, he estimated.
That makes Hourihan the kind of citizen-soldier who reinforces the National Guard's right to brag about the quality of its people who stand ready to serve this nation.
"I never believed we would be mobilized for Bosnia. I certainly didn't plan on the ramifications of the salary cut," acknowledged Hourihan who is not married. "But I believe I'm doing an honorable thing. I think it's an important multinational mission. I'm proud to be a part of it."
Charlie company embarked for eastern Europe in late October after training for six weeks at Fort Polk, La. It was the first reserve component infantry company mobilized for overseas duty since Indiana National Guard Rangers were sent to Vietnam in 1968. The men expected to replace an active Army company on the Sava River bridge by Nov. 1.
Why did he join the Guard? Hourihan is one of many men in the company from Leesburg, Va., who can be considered throwbacks to the Civil War when sons of the landed gentry fought and died in Confederate regiments. Charlie Company's enlisted ranks include a mortgage banker, a computer analyst and a State Department engineer.
"I feel strongly about national service. Unless you've got something invested in this country, you don't really appreciate it," explained Hourihan who enlisted in the Virginia Guard in August 1995. He was studying for the Virginia bar after graduating from the University of Virginia Law School.
"I never considered anything other than the infantry. That's what the Army is to me," said the man who grew up near Baltimore, Md. "When I was a little kid playing soldier, I didn't play a judge advocate general officer or a chemical corps officer. I knew I wanted one of the combat arms."
Hourihan is not blowing smoke. He knows he could easily be a part-time military attorney -- perhaps a captain by now -- because of his civilian credentials.
His firm's who's who client list includes the Clintons for the Whitewater land development case; Oliver North during the 1989 Iran-Contra trial; and John Hinckley Jr. who shot President Reagan in 1981 and who was found not guilty because of insanity. The Washington Post and The National Enquirer are other clients.
The Guard is also a welcome change of pace for this serious sort who works 60 or so hours a week four blocks from the White House and who keeps his 6-foot-1 frame in soldierly trim by running through the National Zoo near his home.
"I do law stuff 28 days of the month," he said. "If nothing else, the Guard gets me out of the office for a weekend a month. I also want to have a grounding with a different group of people. It helps keep life in perspective."
Others, however, let him know that they know who and what he is.
"'Where's my LAWYER?'" was the first question one Drill Sgt. Snyder asked his new platoon on the day Hourihan reported for basic training at Fort Benning, Ga. "I didn't hear the end of that for four months," he laughed. "They called me Matlock."
Other Charlie Company soldiers seek him out for some pro bono advice about such legal matters as divorces, bankruptcies, and buying homes.
And while Spc. Hourihan salutes his officers and gives all of his leaders the military respect that is their due, they know with whom they are dealing.
"He's a good soldier, but he does tend to keep you on your toes," acknowledged SFC Phillip Scott, Hourihan's platoon sergeant. "If you approach him about something, you'd best have your ducks in a row."