Matt Menz

Photos by Gary Higgins

Firefighter, Weymouth

Tell us about yourself.

"I was a goofball (in high school). I was kind of a weird kid, weird sense of humor. I would say I was just more of a cheerful person."

"My first tour (in the Army, in Iraq) I was more inside the base, but I had more close calls. The insurgents, they knew exactly where the aid station was. "

Firefighting "is not an office job where I'm typing into a computer and going out of my mind, nuts. ...I just like how every day it could be something different."

THE SKINNY

RANK: Firefighter

AGE:28

HIRED IN WEYMOUTH: 2006

BIO: Menz was born in Quincy and grew up in Rockland and Braintree. He has three older sisters and one younger brother. His father was a jazz musician and works as a machinist. Menz graduated in 2000 from Braintree High School, where he played football and wrestled. He studied business for a year and half at Bridgewater State College but left after being placed on academic probation. Deciding college wasn't for him, he joined the Army National Guard shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. He returned from his most recent tour of Iraq in May 2008. He was deployed a few months after being hired as a firefighter in Weymouth. He lives in Quincy.

What did you want to be when you were a kid? A professional baseball player

What would you have been if not a firefighter: "I'd work in an office somewhere."

Best advice you ever got: "Never feel bad for yourself because you're the only one out there. It's you or the other guy, so you've got to take care of yourself."

Person who gave it to you: "My high school wrestling coach, Mike Bochman. I applied that in Iraq. It's a quote I live by."

What do you do in your spare time? Play flag football, softball, table tennis, and poker with friends; lounge around with my girlfriend.