CSM Braese was born in Brockton, Mass, and raised in both Massachusetts and Florida. He joined the Army at the age of 17 in 1973. He served in the U. S. Army in Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)11E & 19E,K,Z (armor crewman). He’s served in various assignments worldwide with the U S Army in increasingly higher levels of responsibility, starting out as a tank loader, driver, gunner and then a tank commander. He served more than five years as a tank platoon sergeant, directly responsible for the health and welfare, training, professional development, and discipline of 15 soldiers and the accountability of assigned equipment/ammunition for four Abrams tanks. He was selected for and trained as a Tank Master Gunner with the additional duty of advising commanders in all aspects of gunnery training and ammunition management. He served as the First Sergeant (1SG) of 3 different Tank Companies in Armor Battalions, (Line companies with 14 M1 or M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks) and 1SG of a Headquarters Company consisting of 365 Soldiers, NCO’s, and Officers that supported line tank companies. After selection to E-9 and attendance at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy and appointment to Command Sergeant Major (CSM), he served as CSM, 2nd Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, Fort Carson, CO, and 2nd Battalion, 72nd Armor Regiment, Camp Casey, Korea. His primary role was in advising the battalion commander in all aspects of soldiering and being directly responsible for the health and welfare, training, professional development, and discipline of more than 650 assigned soldiers (including 100 foreign soldiers imbedded in the Korean unit). CSM Braese retired from active duty in February 1996.
From 1996 to 2014, he served as a United States government contractor. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for five years where he advised and assisted the Army of the Federation, BiH, on the acceptance, initial inventory, processing, importation (from Croatia to BiH) and movement (by truck and Railroad) to NATO approved warehouse/storage sites (within BiH), of all new equipment for the new BiH Army. He was the Task Order Leader, Chief Instructor and Training Developer for the following New Equipment: M60A3 TTS Main Battle Tank, M113A2 APC, AMX 30 Main Battle Tank, and AML 90 Scout vehicles. Later he was Chief Instructor and Trainer for the two Combined Arms Battalions, Federation Reaction Brigade, Army of the Federation, BiH. He then continued to serve as a USG contractor for more than three years in Germany, Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait with travel into Iraq. In this capacity he was, directly responsible for the procurement of special-order items for U.S. Forces deployed to Southwest Asia in support of “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Credited with generating sales in excess of $41 million in three years, he organized the procurement, temporary warehousing, inspection, packing, shipment, customs clearance, and delivery of over 2500 truckloads of material and equipment into Iraq. He also spent more than 9 years as a Program Manager in Egypt where he supervised the Master Operations and Maintenance Support Contract for the Egyptian Navy’s Foreign Military Sales case with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. He managed the day-to-day operations for a $5 Million US Dollar maintenance and operations contract along with supervising the day-to-day operations for one hundred (100) local national employees. He was also directly responsible for the scheduled maintenance and emergency repairs for over $50 million in equipment and infrastructure, along with supervising a computer database management and replenishment system (EPAC) for over $1 Million US Dollars of on hand repair/spare parts. This position required daily interface with Senior Foreign Military Officers and U S Government Civilians to minimize delays in scheduled and/or emergency maintenance and repairs while maximizing cost savings to the customer.
His education includes a high school diploma, two years college credit, graduate from U.S. Army non-commissioned officers’ professional development courses that include the Primary Non-Commissioned Officers Course, Basic Non-Commissioned Officer Course, Advanced Non-Commissioned Officer Course, First Sergeants Course, and the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy Class 38. CSM Braese also attended the Master Gunner Course for both M60A1/A3 and M1/M1A1 Main Battle Tanks.