Photo By Staff Sgt. Edward Hermsen | Master Sgt. Matthew Brown, Occupational Safety and Health Specialist with the 153rd...... read more read more
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Master Sgt. Matthew Brown is the newest Occupational Safety and Health Specialist with the 153rd Airlift Wing Safety Office. However he actually joined the Wyoming Air National Guard at only 17 years old as an aircraft electrician. But one moment early in his career changed the way he saw the Air Force, how to make change and even how he viewed his relationships with people.
Brown remembers standing in a maintenance formation sometime in the mid-2010s. The message that day was about standards, responsibility, and doing things right even though it didn’t match what he felt was happening on the shop floor. He walked out frustrated, and his shop chief felt the same way. Together, they went straight to their section chief to talk about the culture they were seeing: people cutting corners, tension between shops, and a mindset that safety slowed the mission instead of protecting it.
Their chief told them something that stuck with Brown: “You can complain about the culture, or you can help change it.”
From that day forward, he started leading differently.
He trained his Airmen by letting them run jobs and supervise him, forcing himself to follow the rules he used to overlook. He began catching problems before they became bigger issues. Over time, his mindset shifted from “get the job done” to “take care of people.”
That change evolved into Brown taking a role with Quality Assurance, it piggybacks into his civilian role with the Federal Aviation Administration, and now led him into his current position as an Occupational Safety and Health specialist.
Today, Brown says safety is simply the best way he knows to serve others.
“You might irritate someone by stopping a job,” he said. “But if you prevent an injury, you made a difference.”
Brown believes one principle matters most in safety and in life: Stop for 5 seconds before you do something and think about the people around you.
He teaches Airmen to slow down, consider how their actions affect others, and look at the bigger picture and not just the task in front of them. He says that small pauses can prevent accidents, strengthen teamwork, and even improve relationships outside of work.
More than two decades after joining the Guard, Brown still sees himself as a maintainer at heart someone who watched unsafe moments, saw people get hurt, and decided to do something about it.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.11.2025 12:47 |
| Story ID: | 553327 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WYOMING, US |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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