Past Chief and retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mark Brownell is being honored by the Tribes Hill Fire Department for completing 49 years of service.

In addition to a long military career, Brownell's fire service career has included leadership at the local level. He was commended by the department for his commitment to the fire service, the nation, and the community.

Brownell has been associated with the Tribes Hill Fire Department for about fifty years. U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik acknowledged Brownell's career and noted that he had completed 45 years of service with the Tribes Hill Fire Department in a 2023 statement that was put into the Congressional Record. He had been the department's chief for more than ten years, according to the statement.

That record makes the department's current 49-year recognition consistent with Brownell's long tenure.

His service to the community has gone well beyond the firehouse. Brownell served for 23 years in the New York Air National Guard, beginning his military career as a flight nurse with the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. During that career, he served in multiple overseas operations and disaster-response missions, including Operation Desert Shield, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Ike.

During his Air National Guard service, Brownell was involved in aeromedical evacuation operations and patient movement in multiple combat zones. The Congressional Record notes that during Operation Iraqi Freedom he assisted in the evacuation of more than 9,000 casualties and later served as chief nurse at an aeromedical evacuation operations center during Operation Enduring Freedom.