In the Service of the Citizenry Together, their combined experience adds up to a whopping half-century of service to the residents of Lansing.
However, Lt. Hung Tran, the longest serving officer on the Lansing Police Department, and Capt. Brenda Brassington, the longest serving member of the Lansing Fire Department, came to their respective careers in different ways. Each has 25 years of work behind them, yet for Tran it was a lifelong dream of working in law enforcement that led him to his decadesspanning job, where he’s continually moved up through the ranks. The police department recruited him and sponsored him as he went through the police academy. “I love this city. Lansing is my hometown. I have family here. I have friends here. All of my colleagues are here,” he said.
For Brassington, it was a significant incident in her life that brought her to the fire department. When her sister’s Williamstonarea home was broken into, the responding officer was also a paramedic. As he took his report and talked about his work, it troubled Brassington that she didn’t have the skills required to react in an emergency situation. She kept relating each scenario to her own family, asking herself, “What would I do?”
simply offering aid, assistance and comfort to those in need.
“I kept thinking about coming upon an accident or something like that and not knowing what to do. That was horrifying to me,” she said.
“Every day, for 25 years, I’ve faced with so many different things. You never really know what it will be,” she said. “It’s really what you train for. It’s what we live for. I’ve basically learned to go one day at a time.”
What she decided to do was act; training first to become an EMT then taking more advanced training to be a paramedic before going through the fire academy and signing on with the Lansing Fire Department. Both Tran and Brassington said the most rewarding aspect of their jobs boils down to
Capt. Brenda Brassington
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Lt. Hung Tran
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“I just want to help people,” Tran said. “That’s the whole purpose behind what I do.” Brassington noted that even after 25 years, there are still difficult days on the job – hard calls that the department responds to, incidents where there isn’t a happy ending.
But even on the difficult days, Tran and Brassington said they know their colleagues are there as an extended family to help see them through. “We always pull it together, no matter what,” Tran said.