Major Braid enrolled in the Navy as a Hull Technician in 1977 and proceeded to Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cornwallis for basic training and then CFB Esquimalt for some on-the-job training. During his TQ3 training at the Fleet School in Esquimalt, he requested and was granted reassignment to the Air Force as a Metals Technician. While awaiting training, he was posted to CFB Trenton for some on-thejob at the North Side Aerospace Maintenance and Development Unit (AMDU).

In Sep of 1978, Major Braid was posted to CFB Borden to attend training as a Metals Technician. His first posting after course completion was to Ottawa's Base Maintenance in 1979. While in Ottawa, he was deployed to Alert, the Golan Heights and also attended a year-long French course. In 1984, he was enrolled into the University Training Plan for Non Commissioned Members (UTPNCM) program at the Royal Military College (RMC) as a Civil Engineering student within the Military Engineer (MILE) classification. Following graduation in 1988, he immediately went on to a post graduate degree in environmental engineering at Queens University under a scholarship.

Major Braid was subsequently posted to the CFB Borden Construction Engineering Section before, once again, returning to Ottawa to work within the Director General Environment (DGE) and then Director General Military Engineering (DGME). In 1999 he applied and was accepted for a Post Graduate degree in explosives Engineering leading to a position at the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) establishment Suffield in 2001. He returned to Ottawa in 2004 working for DGME and in 2005 was posted to the Unexploded Explosive Ordnance and Legacy Sites Program where he remained until his retirement date of January 5th 2009.

Major Braid and his wife Kim live on a small farm just outside of Smiths Falls. In his retirement he plans on focusing his attention on a number of projects that have been idling in the background including the completion of a workshop, expansion of farm buildings, and the restoration of a Victorian home in downtown Smiths Falls. He is also working towards his qualifications as a Building Code Official. Major Matthew Braid and wife Kim have 2 lovely daughters: Andrea and Tanya.