Brown served in ships including the Coast Guard icebreaker
Burton Island (WAGB-283), Cutter
Jarvis (WHEC-725), and Cutter
Rush (WHEC-723). He has held positions on board ships including damage control assistant, assistant engineer officer, and maintenance type deck officer. He has also served in the Small Boat Branch as the supervisor for two inspection officers instructors in the Marine Engineering Department at the U. S. Coast Guard Academy, and served as executive officer. He has been a program reviewer in the Office of the Chief of Staff, Programs Division in Coast Guard Headquarters, and has served as the military assistant to the Secretary of Transportation. He was also assigned as chief of the Budget Division in the Office of the Chief of Staff in Coast Guard Headquarters. In 1998, Brown was promoted to rear admiral. Recently, he was the commanding officer of the USCG Integrated Support Command in Portsmouth, VA. Before he retired, he was the Commander of the Maintenance and Logistics Command Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia. He retired after 33 years of service. He currently serves as the program evaluator for the
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. He coauthored with Harry Benford of the
University of Michigan a book entitled
Ship Replacement and Prediction of Economic Life. He presented this to the 25th Annual Colloquium of Shipbuilders in
Hamburg, Germany at the
University of Hamburg. ==Awards and decorations==