Last week, Upper Schoolers took part in a longstanding tradition, the Memorial Day Assembly, where Matt R. Brooks ’92 served as the assembly speaker.
“For some of you here today, you’ve known someone who answered the call to service and who made that sacrifice…If they could speak to us, I think they would say, ‘honor us when you pause in the rhythms of life to remember our sacrifice and the loss to our families. Go out and give your own sacrifice by putting service to others and country ahead of self. You will honor us by living and leading with honor,'” he said.
Along with Matt’s speech, the assembly included the Color Guard; a reading of names of MICDS alumni, faculty and staff who have lost their lives in service; a recognition of the Veteran alumni in attendance; and the Upper School choir singing America the Beautiful. The assembly concluded with an Avenger Torpedo Bomber flyover of Upper School campus. Click here to watch the full assembly.
After graduation from St. Louis Country Day School, Brooks attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he was a letterman on the football team. After graduating from the Academy and receiving his commission in 1996, Matt attended pilot training, earning his wings in 1998. Trained as a bomber pilot, with qualification in the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Sprit, and B-52 Stratofortress, Matt has served multiple overseas tours of duty flying combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan in the decade following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In addition to his operational service, Matt has served at the Pentagon, United States Central Command Headquarters, and represented the United States as a Defense Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy in Switzerland. Currently, he serves as the Commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, where he is responsible for over 5,000 Airmen who operate and maintain the wing’s fleet of B-52 bombers. He and his wife, Deborah, have two children.