Brendan Curran’s
future looked
bleak. Then the
Army and its
elite Space and
Missile Defense
Command got
involved. Now the
sky’s the limit.
It’s mid-December 2010, and Brendan Curran’s head is spinning. “Yesterday I was zooming around the Auto- bahn in Frankfurt,” says the 2007 TU graduate. “Two days ago I was discussing missile defense operations in Europe. Four days ago I was doing satellite operations in Germany. Six days ago I was in Qatar serving Thanksgiving dinner to the troops, and a week before that I was in Bahrain discussing commercial imagery support for Pakistani flood relief.” For someone as well-versed in military commu- nications and space defense as Curran, that might not be unusual. Look into his background, though, and you’ll
understand why that tour has left him dizzy.
Before the military, before deployments to Iraq
and Kuwait and a stint as adjutant to the deputy
commanding general of the Army’s elite Space and
Missile Defense Command, before yet another
promotion to deputy commander of an Army
Space Support Team in Afghanistan—before all
of that, Curran’s goals were pretty simple.
“The biggest decision I had to make back then
was import or domestic at the bar,” he says with
a laugh.
“Back then” was the late 1990s, and Curran
was lost. A 1996 graduate of Calvert Hall, he had
no drive, no prospects and, seemingly, no future.
“I didn’t have any vision back then,” he says.
“I didn’t have any responsibilities. I didn’t know
what I was capable of. It wasn’t a go-to-war or
go-to-jail scenario, but my father told me, ‘You
BY BILL SHERIDAN
need to think long and hard about what
you want to do.’”
In a way, the answer found him.
A LEADER IN WAITING
It started when he enlisted in the Army in
He distinguished himself enough to convince
the Army brass to take
a chance on him. Im-
pressed by his leadership
qualities, they sent him to
Towson to earn his degree
and come out on the
other side as an officer.
He studied philosophy
from 2004 to 2007, earn-
ing his degree in just three
years and graduating as a
second lieutenant. Seven
months later, he was serv-
ing as executive officer
for a signal company in
Kuwait, where he pro-
vided information man-
agement for the Army’s
presence throughout southwest Asia.
Not long after, Curran went to space.
In February 2009 he joined the Space and
Missile Defense Command in Colorado Springs,
“I want that
private to be able
to access the
imagery he needs
before he walks
off his base in
Afghanistan.”
—Brendan Curran ’07
