Episode Transcription: 

Transcript

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roxo media house welcome back to fortitude folks JW
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Wilson with that kid over there Brinton Payne you feather you’re here these days I don’t no I don’t it looks better but
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thank you for asking uh we want to thank cap checks Bank our sponsor for a long time Mike Thomas we know you’re out
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there staying up late loaning money yeah the guy in the middle here Brinton pretty cool guy I’ve known him for a
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while I know you have as well he’s got quite the story Mr Clint Weber how are
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you Clint good thanks how do you how does one feather their
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hair yours is kind of yeah those who don’t have hair tend to be a little bit enamorous
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know an old 80s thing you know back when Mr T had like the feather uh earrings but it was a real popular I don’t know
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how it’s actually done I do remember going to a salon at one time and asking for a feathered cut yeah please continue
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I think it was I think it’s very it’s very resembling of what you buy both are sporting today well we have thanks for
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the theater today but versus your hair we’ll stick with Clint for this particular part of the interview I love it so Clint currently is the president
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CEO of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth advancement Foundation which we’ll get into towards the end of this uh
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interview but you’ve been there for three years but until we get to that point we want to start at the beginning kind of your childhood where you grew up
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and how the story all unfolded in front of you but where did you where were you born where did you grow up
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gosh um you know I was born in Honolulu Hawaii in 1976. okay so um you know tripler
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Army Medical Center everybody referred to it as the pink hospital kind of sits up on a hill right above Honolulu
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um uh on the island of Oahu obviously my uh parents had just recently been
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married uh and had left College Station Texas and you know I think uh back in
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the early 70s things were a little different back then so if you’re going to get married you need to get a job right to support your family and um
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um novel concept 36 years later that my my dad finally
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retired from the Marine Corps so I grew up in a Marine Corps military family but always from Texas uh and so um you know
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we kind of lived all over I went to 11 different schools um uh did some Elementary School at
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Aiken Elementary School in Paris Texas so my mother’s from East Texas so I got a little 903 area code in my blood right
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and then uh my father is from Abilene Texas okay or grew up there what was
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your dad’s uh time in the in the Marines like what was he what was his role he uh he left Texas University of 1972
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interesting time to be at Texas A M maybe not the most popular time to be at a m there towards the end of the Vietnam
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War but uh uh you know well I’ll just I think it’s probably it’s I’ve always
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thought as an entertaining story so his class or your group they were um all ROTC Army ROTC and they
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um so meant they were going to go in his army officers as soon as they finished up a school and I want to say at the end
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of their junior year uh the US Army came out D Vietnamization was going on so the Army was shrinking
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all the military was shrinking down we’re starting to withdraw from Vietnam and they told these guys hey look you
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don’t owe us any money but you’re not gonna have a job no kidding and so and they had kind of been planned on you
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know all going into the army and so you know a couple of these guys dad and a couple other of his friends you know
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what are we gonna do my gosh there wasn’t a whole lot to do back in college or College Station back then and so the way they they say it is uh
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the marine recruiter or officer selection officer came over from Austin and for some reason the U.S Marine Corps
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was giving out one year contracts back then and so uh yeah he put some John
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Wayne movies on running out a little hotel filled it up with pearl beer and ice and signed four of them up for the Marine Corps no kidding nice on a
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one-year contract so I gotta this is gonna be this is a terrible question but it’s the core at a m different than the
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ROTC like could you do ROTC at a m but not be part of the core you could not do ROTC at Texas a m without being a part
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of the core Cadets which makes it unique so was your dad part of the core he was okay in fact well in 1968 I don’t think
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you I think you had to be they may have changed that as he was there yeah yeah so then what about his father like do
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you have it all the way like talk about that lineage yeah so my grandfather uh was class of 1950
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um um interesting uh you know so my dad’s side of the family is is the Catholic
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side of the family and they were originally German immigrants in the early 1900s and moved to Central
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Michigan like a lot of Germans did and there are a lot of Germans that moved to Central Texas
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um well after World War II the big family family of nine both the mom and dad had died so after World War II
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what you used to see a lot was the fan the kids would split up yeah the two oldest siblings would take half the
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younger kids in the you know they would split them so one of the siblings took four of the kids my grandmother and they
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moved to Central Texas because you know they they drove South they were looking for a kind of a new opportunity a new
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place and you get to Central Texas and in 19 oh gosh probably
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42.43 wooden damn radios on and there’s polka music and people are speaking
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German yeah oh yeah yeah and so um my great uncle and who is taking care
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of my grandmother and brought her down became the town doctor in Schulenburg Texas right there on I-10 so excellent
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that’s kind of where his family comes from so maybe a little bit more than you wanted to know but so my grandfather who
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married my grandmother was a Naval aviator in World War II and
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um uh in in when he when the war finished uh he flew Avengers and Hell divers uh went went back to college and
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and want to get an engineering degree and went to Texas A M and and then uh immediately following
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that you know when you get an engineering degree at Texas A M you go out to the oil field in 1950 so he moved his family
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out to Abilene and that’s okay okay that’s where my father grew up out there I bet he saw some stuff and obviously
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you’re you knew early on in your life probably where your where your trajectory was heading based on your Dad’s military you know where he wanted
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to be maybe I think I did you know I look back on that now and I try to think about that I was having a conversation
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about that the other day I don’t know if you guys remember where you were talking about college a couple of minutes ago
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but I mean when I was in college I was on a Marine in ROTC scholarship right uh
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I guess I probably wanted to be like my dad I I think that was certainly the case but I mean in college I mean I wasn’t
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you know I look back on it now and all my friends were trying to get into the business program and taking Finance
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classes and thinking about well I’m going to go home and run the family business none of that crossed my mind man I mean I was I got to get this
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degree spend as much time in the Dixie Chicken as I can in as little time in class as I can in order to get this
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degree to go fly airplanes so that was called the fire that was it yeah and as you can tell by that piece of bling on
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his finger he he completed the task you got got through there yes indeed so I got to drink the beer with the ring in
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it don’t hold it against me yeah straight to the Marines from there I did I was uh I finished up you know like I
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said I I struggled a little bit early on so I was four years in a summer school period I had to take a class I graduated
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technically you understand yeah it’s not so yeah yeah so it’s four four and some
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change in college and then uh so I graduated uh in August of 2000 uh excuse
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me 1998 and then um the graduated then walked uh over to the
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quadrangle uh put my Marine Corps uniform on was commissioned and two days later got in a pickup truck and drove to
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Quantico Virginia incredible for the next 20 years you’re going to spend with the Marines and and it progressively
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gets better and I’ve known you enough to know a little bit about your story but I like love if you could share but you
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become a Naval aviator I mean that’s right you you attend uh weapons into weapons and tactics Squadron one or
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Marine Aviation weapons and tactic Squadron WTI which is the equivalent in the Marines of Top Gun for the Navy
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which is incredible can you walk us briefly through the the progression from Marines to to that point sure I’ll uh
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let me try and do that and you guys just cut me off I guess if uh you know we only have two hours clinics okay okay
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yeah before then feathered hair again you’ll know that’s your that’s it that’s the song
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and I am surprised I must say I am surprised being born in Honolulu you didn’t get a surf question from Brinton
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so
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um when you when you join the Marine Corps as an officer you go up to Quantico all the Marine officers go up to
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Quantico um the guys that have the aviation contract always thought we were really lucky because once again you know
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I got six months of training to do that’s I’m sure great training but it’s a check in the box because I got to get down to
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Pensacola Florida to learn how to start flying airplanes and when you get along how long between uh Quantico to
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Pensacola what’s about well there’s some waiting time in there so it’s about nine months but it’s about six months of
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training okay and so and you know it’s up there in the you know Quantico Hills or Highlands the FBI’s got a training
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center up there too and and you do some great training you meet some great people it’s the first time you meet
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people from all over the United States and that was something that Jody Foster at all there Jody Foster at the
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beginning of Cincinnati University of Cincinnati football player no no no silence
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I do know Jody Foster that he was a but I don’t know her backfire I don’t
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know her okay sorry yeah no no great great question yeah thank you thank you thank you uh so we um
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so you know we did that but but once again I found myself in a position where it was okay what do I need to do kind of
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what do I need to do to get through this thing to get where I need to be yeah and um which was unique because that’s a
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very competitive environment because most guys go to the basic school and they don’t know what they’re going to do in the Marine Corps so there’s a lot of
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competing test taking yeah yeah and um and uh in a lot of different ways and I
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never worried about that I mean it was uh you know uh you had an air contract
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so I spent a lot of time in Georgetown a lot of time uh over in Baltimore or outside Johns Hopkins yeah
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um uh the college scene up there finished that and then uh married my
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wife so we started dating during that time period where’d she go to school by the way she went to Westminster College
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I give I get so much for that no stuff great so thank you we knew each other
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from our my senior high school which is a different story uh and just had bottom
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line is friendship Co you know became a a real relationship I think she would say that
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and then you guys just visiting each other yeah yeah and then she living oh she was she was in in Westminster oh oh
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and you would go back okay she was in Fulton yeah they weren’t zooming I can tell you that yeah yeah there was no
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zooming that’s right yes in fact there was the there was the phone booth with the the phone the car do you remember that yes recharged to the card yeah so
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for the young people that they put True Romance yes yeah yeah a different era uh
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so um did that enjoyed my time in Quantico got married and then went down to Pensacola
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and I tell people that’s kind of certainly becoming a Marine was a great honor for me my father was a marine he
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was an artillery officer but I wanted to fly airplanes as well and so to get down to Pensacola and check in down there and
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actually start that process that that’s when it was the competition level started to ratchet up a little bit sure
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it was like a Top Gun like it was it like a scene like was it like all those guys like did you run into Iceman there
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I’m trying to think of the character you would be in this Clinton yeah I don’t know that goose maybe keep thinking
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about that okay hopefully I’m not Goose but yeah yeah but the competition I mean yeah every day like you’re in a really
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you are I mean you’re in an environment every day there are a lot a lot of very bright people that are there great
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athletes um a lot of folks in Naval Aviation I don’t know why this is the case but it
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seemed like half the Navy football team was there oh yeah so I mean we got division one athletes that are pretty I
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mean a lot of type A personalities um uh so very bright people I mean I
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Texas A M is Harvard on the Brazos Rivers right but it’s probably not the same thing as yeah Harvard any flight
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experience never touched an airplane just knew you wanted to fly never touch them but you could have gotten there and
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then said hey your eyesight’s off and one eye done that’s it that’s it and they use a lot of those what they call
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them physiological factors basically what happens is managing the population of pilots in the Navy and the Marine
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Corps is challenging because the pipeline’s so long so it’s like a basically a supply chain problem yeah
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and um and so because of that the way that they manage that right wrong or indifferent
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and doesn’t really matter if it’s fair but they’ll they’ll change the criteria so the criteria might be 20 30 or 2040
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but if they don’t need any Pilots next year they’ll just ramp that thing up to 20. perfect eyesight yeah and then wash
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a bunch of people out so there’s a lot of risk and kind of chance that goes with it too yeah but it was probably a
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really intense time you just you’re not married but I would imagine that you were living a life where you’re like I
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gotta be on like every day all the time right well I think one of the things what I would say is you know whether or
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not I was a good pile it or not ugly I mean I don’t know I’d leave that up to other people to decide but but I do know this there were
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individuals that were natural at it and they tend to be natural Pilots
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that are really good fighter pilots tend to have a kind of a a a very
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interesting and Superior decision-making process great quarterbacks they’re like
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great quotes you would not put yourself in that category you know I don’t know I mean I’d let somebody else make that
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decision but that was my assessment sure it wasn’t necessarily about IQ uh it was
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really more about confidence uh work ethic willing to work hard and then um
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being able to make decisions with confidence on a timeline super fast
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right that’s right it’s like doctors you know some of those doctors are the same way they’re just it’s like how did you make that I would have pondered over
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like just and if and if you make a mistake it’s just gone yeah it’s gone so you’re right on to the next thing like a
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you know like one of our questions or one of my questions about this was I’m asking you to kind of talk about
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yourself in that deep but what made you able to do this at that high level like what what what inside of you Clinton and
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what makes you able to handle this kind of pressure which is a lot I mean you’re a natural born leader I know you’re
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smart guy but what what what do you what do you excel at that makes you able to do these things well that’s a good
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question I think the Naval aviator that excels that’s the Jet Pilot Navy or
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Marine Corps pretty much the same um is the individual
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[Music] there is something about um I hate to say it but there’s a work
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ethic that goes with it and then there’s a level of fear of failure
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or fear of letting other people down inside of the culture right that is the
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ready room which is the place where we all you know or or to be quite honestly the bar that we the Officers Club
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um fear of failure feel letting people down in that environment supersedes everything else that makes sense everything well then let me ask you how
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many of those guys came from a similar heavy military upbringing like you did
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too I mean was it probably a majority but not all you’d be surprised yeah you know a fair amount of guys
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um you know some of the guys and that’s just the there are the natural Pilots of the guys that just they love to fly and
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they’re still flying today yeah I mean I haven’t touched an airplane since 2018 which you know it’s maybe we’ll get to
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that maybe we won’t but but the the the the um there are guys that that knew they
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did their research and they just knew I want to be in here and the quickest way and the cheapest and the quickest way to
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get there flying the coolest and the best airplanes is in the military yeah yeah how would you describe flight
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school and that in that level to the general person doesn’t know much yeah yeah is there a way to do that
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um yeah I’m sure it’s probably pretty close to the same or relative to the way everything else is today and you know
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when you think about uh what it is today but you know 20 something years ago it was
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um pretty intimidating um like I mentioned everybody’s kind of there everybody’s eyeballing everybody
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else um I think the very first thing you do is they put you in a flight suit and you do a mile swim
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oh you know which is kind of interesting because some of the mile is you got to
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be a decent swimmer in the ocean no in a pool actually an Olympic pool you know Pensacola I just read has one of the
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largest indoor pools there for like and they were swimming in it that’s the Pensacola Center I guess is the name
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yeah and so we did a bunch of other stuff you know a lot of water-based stuff but that one that and the Hilo
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dunker that that turns you upside down and you got to get out of it did you have a helmet on when you have to do the mind uh you have a helmet on and you had
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a flight suit on Brutal yeah and um but it was funny because you know you talk
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about just the intimidation factor of a guy like me I mean I was a pretty decent swimmer I’d grown up in and around the
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ocean so I mean I’ll swim the freestyle for the first 200 meters how cool we go to the dog
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yeah a lot of backstroke back over to the
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breaststroke mix it up a little bit right maybe float a little bit towards the end you know catch your breath well
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there was one guy there who was in a water polo player from USC swam the
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Whole Thing freestyle finish I mean I think it probably took me like 55 minutes from remember right under here’s
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your Iceman right there this guy swims it in like 18 minutes that’s right Clint I am
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dangerous yeah that’s right that’s right so uh so that was the General experience
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in Pensacola there was a weed out process it was the I it was the you know the eyes the you know the physiology
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um doing a bunch of stuff that that really didn’t have a whole heck of a lot to do with flying but just trying to determine whether or not you really
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wanted to be there and then from there they sent me to Corpus Christi and that’s where I learned how that’s where I flew my first airplane oh okay yeah
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how long does that take from day one till when that’s probably eight weeks
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that’s it through through that it was there was some there was some uh did some weather classes that you and
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you had I think you had to make like an I can’t remember the grades but a lot of folks flunked out of it weather classes
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engineering classes uh classes on uh just basics of like a jet engine or a
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turbine engine and then the the physiology and a lot of people just don’t like being in the water yeah and
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they just you know so what kind of plane was the first one you flew first airplane was a t-34 mentor
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yeah turbo Mentor like we used to call it the Tormentor okay yeah yeah are you
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a trainer or something well it’s basically a beachcraft uh it’s a little tandem two-seat front the structure was
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in the back um student was up in the front had about 1100 shaft horsepower go about 220 miles
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an hour um fully aerobatic so you go and that was the kind of the cool thing the first
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airplane you get in it’s retractable retractable retractable gear high performance airplane likes got this
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stick oh yeah that’s right probably just like that yes friend yes just like the in the
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sound just like sounds a lot like that yeah that sound right there go ahead and amp that up Joelle for the uh you worked
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your way up to I know at least the F-18 Hornet yeah I know a little bit about this plane but dumb question but what does it feel like
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to be behind the the throttle or the Stick of a F-18 Hornet hold tight Clint how do you know a little bit about this
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plane I happen to like airplanes previously I’ve been to a few air shows no I’ve never been in one but I’ll go to the air show okay sorry yeah so we
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eventually worked our way up there I will tell you the the probably the most I guess the best story if there’s a
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story about learning how to fly the F-18 and Tyler head and I talk about this a lot because that’s what eventually
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brought me back to Fort Worth Capital yeah okay wait Tyler flew too he did Robert uh no his his older brother
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Tyler head oh yeah but his little brother but then but almond did too right Alban did too now he was a P3 guy
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yeah so any other names you want to drop no but he can’t because all men can’t talk we shouldn’t even be talking about
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all of them like I don’t even know if he exists anymore in this stuff he’s flying you know okay so um uh Tyler and I were
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talking about this uh dinner the other night but you know on September 11 2001
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I was in the ready room I had just had my first simulator and the simulator experience was that’s where you for the
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F-18 is where you kind of the dose of reality starts coming in I think my simulator instructors were all Vietnam
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era guys several of them had been shot down several of them have been prisoners of War uh they were all friends with
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John McCain you know uh and so there were some really incredible stories yeah and that’s where you realized okay
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you know we’re in an airplane now being trained by guys that that I mean these
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guys are pretty salty yeah pretty salty so I just had my first simulator and I
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was standing Duty September 11 2001 and um it’s a training Squadron on on a but
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on a base with fighter squadrants it’s uh Oceana Naval Air Station Oceana and
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Virginia Beach and um man I’ll never forget it the TV’s on I
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think they had it on whatever it was CBS or NBC and what do you guys in the galley or something we’re sitting in the
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ready room and I’m and I’m the duty officer so I’m um airplanes are checking out they go fly well they check out on
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the radio before they go fly and I put their little thing up on the board okay Airborne the time you know the CEO comes
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by and he says hey how many airplanes we have Airborne so it’s that kind of a thing a duty officer serious stuff yeah
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and um and so we’re watching this happen and before anybody on TV starts talking
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about what this could even be I get a there there was a it was called a crash phone
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and uh it was in every Navy Marine Corps Squadron and it’s a red phone it’s like a bat phone and the tower runs it along
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with base operations and the Crash fund Rigs and the Crash fund Rings you pick it up you give your two initials there
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they verify because they have the duty schedule they verify that you’re the guy that’s supposed to be on duty CW and
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that’s right CW Charlie whiskey oh you got to do it that way okay and then they
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said um uh hey recalling all of the airplanes
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and um so brought all of the airplanes back in and then get with the squander Commander recall all of the officers in
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the Squadron so I spent the next 45 minutes calling everybody at home that had had the day off or wasn’t
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scheduled prioritizing the instructors which I didn’t really understand at first well
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come to find out um 15 minutes later I’m coordinating live
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air to air missiles to come in to put on these training airplanes they canceled the whole training schedule and our
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instructors took off and they were the guys that were flying over the top of Washington DC
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that’s right yeah because we didn’t know it at the time but the Pentagon thing had just happened as well yeah and so
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this Squadron um was the was this because it had some older instructor Savvy guys that was
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assigned to go do that and I look back on that now and that changed everything yeah because before that we thought we
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were going to go going Westpac and it was going to be a lot of fun and you know maybe you know we’re really going
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to fight the Chinese in 1998 you know I mean the the Russians it was just it was
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different yeah then yeah in 2001 and that changed it all and that was it that’s what kind of what what what
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probably created the the career path you think um anything prepares you for like a
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moment like that or think about even you talked about the history of the guys who were the trainers that like clearly they
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had a tenure that they knew you know it’s like when things get serious real fast like well nope this isn’t kidding
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around you think anything prepared you for something like like if all the training and stuff you know I would
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imagine yeah well so so the training is the key to Naval Aviation that’s what gets you that’s what keeps you alive at
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the back of your ship at night yeah without a doubt training is is is second to none at the end of the day you
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know he’d say this but when you’re this is the reality it’s the nature of the ready rumor the type of people that are
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there yeah when you’re 22 years old and you’re in that environment this is I mean it’s like Christmas
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morning oh in a sense yeah yeah it’s like you know we’re gonna go get these guys you know we’re going to those old
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guys like that to the instructors where you could you feel it from them a little bit too they were a little different
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stuff yeah there’s serious stuff so Clint you just you just opened the door for that but you you saw a combat as a
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neighbor you let a naval squadron right yeah uh you did you see combat I flew you know I did five deployments JW I did
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three in Iraq so it’s not an Afghanistan Iraq was that I was in Iraq from roughly
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2005 to 2008 I spent about 60 70 percent of the time over there during those
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three years into three deployments you said I did I did how many flights are we talking about during the three oh I
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probably have about 1200 hours of flying over there so it’s probably six seven hundred sorties and this is
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where I mean you’re already separating the men from the boys forgive the lack of better description but when you’re
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flying in a combat zone during an actual conflict with live ammunition then it’s
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like the real deal right and not that not to delineate from uh September 11th
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but you’re other than that what what’s what’s feeling I know your training is everything but what does that feel like internally to be part of something like
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that I mean you I think we all felt a lot of Pride being a part of uh
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um you know being regardless of what you think about it now okay looking back on
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it at the time we were well prepared we had a lot of pride in uh we had a lot of trust in
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each other yeah had a lot of trust in the Young Marines that were fixing the airplanes for us
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um and um we were over there doing you know what we felt like was our part they
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write that stuff with the Sharpie on the missiles and stuff they do write the stuff so what you’re taking off from
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from a base in Iraq or are you in Kuwait or is it is it you were in a western Iraq Air Base called al-assad which was
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actually built by the uh the money was from the United States built by Saddam
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Hussein and probably early 80s this this air base is uh 18 000 foot Runway oh my
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gosh three triple right I mean you could see it from 100 miles away out in the middle of the desert
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um it was uh it was a heck of a facility and it was but you also saw
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it was uh it was an interesting uh place to fly out of because history was frozen
28:04
in time and so what do I mean by that you’d walk past a reinforced concrete
28:11
hanger that you knew that we the Americans had probably provided money for it to be built yeah and there would
28:18
be a giant 30-foot hole in it where somebody dropped a 6 000 pound laser-guided bomb through it yeah in
28:24
2003 yeah two years prior yeah and you knew that was an American Aviator that
28:30
did that and then you would fly right past and then as you walk past further you’d see like a literally a broken down
28:38
mig-21 right there was a Russian airplane that they had bought probably in the 19th so it was just it’s crazy
28:43
now you’re making the Pandora’s boxes beginning man like this is well it makes
28:49
you start like uh it may you know it makes one that has an inquisitive mind start to ask questions like why does the
28:56
Middle East look like it does yeah right yeah did you learn a lot you think going over there I’ll bet you learned to
29:02
appreciate it about the culture about the area the region the country of Iraq
29:07
which difficult place to make a country out of very real you know we don’t really see
29:12
it here the but there’s enough Nuance there I mean there are five or six competing
29:18
cultures really inside of the boundaries of that country and it just makes it very difficult so are you are you like
29:24
sleeping in a tent you know I mean so the reason I ask is because like there’s a super importance of sleep you talk
29:31
about all this preparation you’re nothing without a good night’s sleep are you like sweating the whole I mean no but by the time we got there I got to be
29:37
on we had these they called them I think we called them cans but they’re these little quad cons it’s probably the equivalent of being like a
29:44
uh however Halliburton guy out in the Midland or something like that I mean we’ve been there for two years like glamping what jdub does yeah yeah that’s
29:51
right yeah yeah yeah so uh that wasn’t important but I will say this we we would always you know the the C-130 guys
29:57
were there yeah they lived with us on the south side and so the um the thing that we would always try to do as the
30:03
fighter guys is you get you kind of so combat in general I think this is
30:09
probably the case in general for most people it’s kind of a short periods of
30:15
kind of terrifying or um um emotions or exhilaration with
30:21
longer periods of sometimes boredom and yeah just so one of the things that we would do is
30:27
even it even at night we would try to come in for it was you know we would call it six at six which was when you
30:33
came back into the Airfield you needed to basically hit 600 feet AGL right at the end of the runway at 600 knots which
30:40
is probably a little too fast for coming into the break to recover the airplane but it was you wanted to kind of let
30:46
everybody know that our Squadron was back from a mission yeah so we’d light the afterburners and then break right over the top of the C-130 guy so that
30:52
they couldn’t sleep especially at night you know permission for fly baby
30:59
this is Tom Cruise man forget Tom Cruise like we got the real deal I wasn’t really all that good at it some guys
31:05
were really good at it yeah so yeah can you tell us about one notable Mission you flew over I mean I know there’s no
31:10
air-to-air combat I don’t think but it’s mostly like dropping bombs and destroying enemy targets things of that
31:16
nature correct that’s right any notable missions you could share with us so I did three tours first tour was flying a
31:22
lot of dropping of weapons second tour was actually with the Infantry okay for uh seven months coordinating with the
31:29
guys that were dropping the bombs and then the third third time I went over back in the airplane again
31:35
um which was the most dangerous of those three oh by far by far beyond the ground
31:42
oh yeah yeah but just because the time frame and that we were I was with a marine infantry battalion first
31:48
Battalion six Marines and we were in ramadi in 2006. and it was pretty tough on those you ever take any any shrapnel
31:55
to the already shots to the to your plane your personal plane we I think I don’t you know I mean I think we were
32:00
maybe shot at once or twice but I mean realistically in a jet airplane when we were flying in Iraq pretty low threat so
32:08
the helicopter guys were really it was pretty tough on them the end that’s you bring that up because I was about to say
32:14
like the only reference that guys like me have or the what you see in the movies you know and you Black Hawk Down
32:19
and all the art did those give it the same I get the emotion from things like
32:25
that or is it overdone you tell us like is that is that accurate or is it like it’s far less than that or it’s no it’s
32:32
right there or it’s you can’t even touch I think Black Hawk Down is probably pretty good realistic combat movie yeah
32:39
since you brought it up I mean do you see environments just the environment gives me fear right of just that nobody
32:46
going in and or out or anything like that just what’s going on and the lack of trust I mean it’s crazy it is crazy
32:53
environment but you know it’s also you look it brings those environments that bring out the worst in people and they
32:58
bring out the best in people and there are moments of levity and it’s it’s really inspiring you know you’re out
33:04
there I mean I’m probably 27 28 years old at the time and I’m with the Young Marines and um
33:10
I’m a captain so you know I mean and these kids are 18 19 years old yeah and
33:17
um they show a tremendous amount of physical courage and moral couragement required and then the Gallows humor is
33:24
great yeah and it’s yeah I mean you feel like you’re amongst a very special group of people where you were sitting there
33:33
um with an 18 or 19 year old kid who’s three quarters of the way through a pack of Parliament lights and
33:39
um he’s pretty tough yeah that’s uh well thank you yeah 27 or 28 when I was three
33:46
quarters away through a pack of Marlboro Lights yeah I wasn’t thinking of anything so I mean we’re gonna say that
33:51
afterwards but right here no thank you hey look I appreciate you saying that and people say that a lot and uh and and
33:58
it’s it makes you realize how great a country we live in and I know it is really sincere but I got to tell you
34:04
this and tell young people all the time I mean really I should be thankful I had the best job in the world
34:09
you know I mean a different deployment different time but I also did a deployment to the Western Pacific and I
34:15
mean I’m hanging out on top of the Sophie hotel at two o’clock in the morning in Bangkok with 18 guys after
34:20
having flown an 80 million dollar airplane halfway across the Western Pacific who gets to do that yeah nobody
34:27
gets to do that yeah and so that was I mean I was very fortunate and a lot of fun so so you reached the rank of major
34:33
correct I did I did on active duty I reached the rank of major I was out at mots one as you’d mentioned I was
34:40
instructing now so I’d done some combat time and I was out in Yuma Arizona great place to live great people and
34:47
[Music] um different different conversation just said it’s time for me to get out which
34:52
is a little unusual how do you end that how does that end I mean did you just walk in say I’m done or you have to fill out I mean is there a story yeah yeah a
34:59
little bit of both and it’s not you know the Marine Corps fighter Community is not a community
35:05
when you get to to that point it’s not a community where you walk you know you have that conversation with people and
35:12
they and then your Superior says oh that’s okay don’t worry about it you know it’s not it’s not the way it is
35:18
sure and and it can’t be that way it’s just not I mean it’s the first thing is I can’t believe you wouldn’t want to do
35:25
this and realistically you’re you’re a quitter and uh
35:30
and I I get that I totally get that um because [Music] um
35:36
it’s a high performance organization surely so that’s unfortunate but yeah you know Brit and I know you as we know
35:42
you now before after the all the military service so I have to believe that there was other factors I mean I
35:48
don’t know if his wife and children or you were you wanted a little more control of your own life maybe a more stable life I don’t know if that’s the
35:53
right answer but I with that that part of itself that’s it has to be tough so that’s it so you joined you joined the
35:58
Working World more or less and normal capacity life’s changed for you is is
36:04
this a I mean it’s got to be a buzz kill at first yes you know I’ll tell you
36:09
um in some ways yes but I was so happy to be back I’d mentioned to you my
36:14
family’s cousins on and then by this time parents and sister and
36:19
brother-in-law everybody’s back in Texas and uh man it just felt like we got
36:24
really lucky they gave us a gave me orders to Carswell Air well
36:31
the old Carswell Air Force Carswell field now and um
36:36
got orders here went to work for a guy who I’d known who’s a mentor of mine he allowed me to start uh applied to
36:42
business school oh went to Texas Christian University and had a great experience there thank God I thought you
36:48
probably did yeah yeah that’s right that’s right horned frog you’re not wearing your ring I don’t know if we do Rings though but yeah I had a great time
36:55
had a great time there learned a lot needed to I tell people in 2012 I didn’t
37:01
know what a balance sheet p l statement of cash flow statement of stockholders Equity was had no idea
37:07
so um and I guess that really gets into I always feel like people have really taken care of me in my life and I’m so
37:14
thankful for that because um I’m you know of course that changed pretty quickly but 12 you probably
37:20
remember this I mean if you lived in Fort Worth and you’re a guy like me you’re probably gonna go try to work in
37:25
the oil field somewhere operations make them heavy machinery heavy equipment working with dudes out in the field
37:32
that’s what we did so it was you know and so I was thinking about that and then um uh I got a local guy here uh who
37:40
who we had always kind of stayed in touch with but really had rekindled our friendship since moving back asked me to
37:47
come work with him and his family and and that was kind of it who are we talking about Tyler head yeah so I mean
37:53
most most folks around here would know uh Hannah and Tyler and certainly his family and then uh you know Hannah’s uh
38:00
parents uh who were two probably two finest people I’ve ever met
38:06
so the opportunity to work for them was corporate Capital you’re they’re now yeah I was working with Tyler and it was
38:13
yeah I mean the best I’m most most you know in in Fort Worth it’s I guess
38:19
pretty standard thing it’s a just a small private privately held direct investment firm and so you know here you
38:27
go uh you know take Course Tyler had been out a couple years before I mean really smart guy uh business school up
38:35
in the Northeast done really well there and so he was setting this structure up
38:40
and brought me on to and so started out doing analyst work and then that eventually worked into principal work
38:46
they gave me a lot of responsibility um trusted me a great deal uh be forever
38:54
thankful for that so I learned what I needed to learn in order to kind of work my way into the job I have now you think
38:59
a lot of that’s do I mean this is going to sound like a silly question but obviously Tyler knew what you had gone
39:05
through because he had gone through the same thing and a lot of that trust came out of that and how much has that been
39:11
helpful in your life because you guys are a unique Bunch you know there’s no doubt well I do think
39:18
and I think I mean I mean you guys I don’t know you guys would have your own opinions on this that would be probably
39:24
more valid than mine but I do think that it becomes it’s becoming
39:30
increasingly more difficult unfortunately but it’s always the case man can I really trust this person are
39:38
they going to do what they say they’re going to do in other words if it doesn’t go right then which sometimes things don’t go
39:46
right yeah yeah then in my 100 sure that that they never
39:51
cheated for me or they gave really that’s rare but really that they gave it 100
39:56
that that they they left everything out there on the field that they did everything that they could possibly do
40:02
to try to ensure success for the resources that they had been given to Steward or managed
40:07
that’s a lot harder to find than I would have initially thought you know and you
40:13
guys are successful business guys so you’ve clearly found that
40:18
um and uh but but it can take some time yes indeed I don’t think you ever stop trying to be that you know like I mean I
40:25
think that actually our age that we’re all hitting is where it starts turning that corner where you you start really
40:31
trying to think about that more you know I think that’s important you know so you know
40:39
all of the talent all of the EQ all of the IQ all of the um you can be the best
40:45
at anything or everything [Music] you know but at the end of the day if
40:51
you’re a sociopath you’re just assuming I’m yeah I mean and so can you tell you to say that you did
40:58
look at you though by the way yeah it shows over you cut it cut it hit
41:03
the profile you got to the Catholic now you’re at the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth that’s right Nation what is what
41:09
is that what do you guys do so we manage the we do a number of different things but I think probably most prescient to
41:15
this conversation is we manage the endowment we actively manage the Endowment for the diocese which is you
41:21
know what is a Catholic Diocese so I mean I mean I got to tell you guys before I took the job on and it was given a job offer from the bishop which
41:28
I’m eternally thankful um I would have probably been asking the same thing so the it’s a contiguous body
41:34
or of of land that’s 28 counties 26 000 square miles 92 parishes now 17 schools
41:42
so kind of a little school system but it is the Catholic Church effectively in north Texas so up to the Red River on
41:49
the west side of I-35 kind of Denton area all of Dutton County out to Childress down to Albany and then kind
41:56
of down to Cliff uh Dublin and then Clifton and then back up I-35 again so
42:01
um that is you know we call them investors or uh you know they have donor advice funds but you know all of those
42:08
entities at different levels have Investments that they’re making right
42:13
and so we’ve pulled all of those and we managed them in a general pool we have a multi-e strat we call a multi-strategy
42:19
or multi-strat multi-assay class fully Diversified Investment Portfolio you got
42:25
people just like you to the east of us to the north of us we do so the Diocese of Dallas yep smaller uh body of land
42:31
but more people yeah uh for example uh and the the largest diocese in Texas
42:37
does Archdiocese of Galveston Houston okay yeah and so when a Catholic school at any level young old around in this
42:45
area needs something needs a like a building or anything clothing books whatever do they call you do they call
42:52
this is this where the funds come from to do such such things that’s right so if they’ve got an endowment that they’ve
42:57
set up for those purposes then they call us and then we make sure that they get what they need that’s maybe a little
43:03
oversimplified but that’s that’s that’s that’s effectively sure you know so they they not unlike TCU TCU manages its
43:10
budget and a part of its Revenue are the cash flows that its endowment is kicking
43:16
off right so a similar structure to that money raising is you’re the endowment yeah you’re the kickoff of that cash flow right yeah that’s money raising a a
43:23
major player in your in your career it is a component of what we do and um gosh Bishop would probably say uh Clint don’t
43:30
say that I’m just not really all that good at it but we’ve got some great people that are good at it we manage a team of advancement and development
43:36
folks okay um we manage all of the development efforts for all the different parishes
43:41
so if they want to build a new church they come to us and we work with them on that and we help them set a program up
43:47
for that We Run The Bishop’s annual appeal so uh very similar to I’m sure
43:53
tcu’s got an annual appeal or an annual fund that’s interesting say that because JW and I have been working on a religious concept we’d like to bring to
44:00
you eventually yeah just to kind of people call it Cults we don’t get in we don’t call it we have just something a
44:06
concept where he’s going with that but tell us about the bishop tell us about the bishop real fast who’s this man
44:11
what’s he like if you can great guy uh and uh real honor to work uh for him he would
44:19
probably say with him um you know the way I describe working uh uh Bishop Olson is the type of
44:28
salt of the earth Great American um you know lower grew up in a lower
44:34
middle class family on the west side of Chicago um and at 14 years old
44:40
uh entered this High School seminary in downtown Chicago which was probably
44:46
north of 90 Catholic back then multi-ethnic multi just a very real
44:52
Melting Pot if you will cultures um but I mean got on a train every morning and kind of knew at 14 that’s
44:59
what he wanted to do and of course 15 years later became a Catholic priest and
45:04
found his way into the Diocese of Fort Worth a great teacher um uh spent most of his time in seminary
45:11
teaching guys um and you know you kind of know what you see is what you get what’s he does
45:17
he wear the uh Roman collar yeah okay absolutely but not anything not anything oh yeah no I mean he could yeah I mean
45:23
he could dress it up if you can dress he can dress it up his dress uniform as I put it yeah yeah
45:29
you’ve been doing this now for three years yes future plans is it just steady the course keep the ship going or do you
45:36
have is there is there a future expansion plan or anything you can share you know I don’t know I mean I guess
45:41
we’ve all kind of got our plans right don’t lose the money basically don’t lose the money do no harm right it’s
45:46
God’s money it’s God’s money you’ve got to be real careful with it yeah one of our one of our guys who used to
45:53
work at a hedge fund who you know he says you know every time I every time I go to look to make a trade I’m thinking about that person that’s putting that
45:59
dollar in the collection basket oh yeah that’s probably good though yeah yeah it’s probably a good good thought to have
46:04
um who knows uh right what I would say right now is it’s very it’s a very
46:10
fulfilling for me in the sense that I am able to I don’t I don’t think about this enough
46:16
I should think about it more as far as being thankful I get to so being a marine was very
46:24
fulfilling um working in finance for great people [Music]
46:30
um is fulfilling but not at the same level as being able
46:37
to do that for something bigger better than yourself yeah and so I I do think
46:44
for whatever reason maybe I find a lot of uh I get a I just kind of get a lot
46:50
out of that so I can’t I love what I’m doing I can’t see myself doing anything different anytime soon but
46:56
you know that’s wonderful we don’t really have control over that I guess so yeah well I gotta think you’re
47:02
somewhere close though with handling that finances for that guy upstairs well I don’t know maybe maybe so maybe yeah
47:08
we’ll see maybe it depends on how I do yeah how many kids do you have I have one
47:13
daughter one is 16. yes oh yeah man it never ends dude we just started driving
47:19
the car and she’s yeah grandmother gave her a car which is very generous she’s
47:24
got this little car and she is not she’s very conscientious she’d be she’d die if
47:29
she knew I was even talking about her very she’s very conscientious but she cannot parallel park and we’re not going
47:36
to take the test until she can do it good good you know what I mean something tells me you might be able to help her
47:41
do that you know you can’t pass the test with failing that I’m just saying hopefully she didn’t watch this yeah but I thought that I failed it and then I
47:47
was super relaxed and the guy’s like I was like so I failed hon he goes no you passed he’s like why do you think that I was like because I hit the cone yeah but
47:54
that was the rumor back in yeah could okay it’s good to know yeah well don’t tell her that okay all right as we
47:59
finish up your father worked for Tech stock for a long time correct yeah he did you know uh when dad left the Marine
48:05
Corps after 36 years he came back right to Texas was actually was a vice
48:10
president for student affairs at Texas A M for a while and then the executive director for the Texas Department of
48:15
Transportation which he loved did he ever know that guy over there you think yeah he would he would maybe say could
48:22
you get me another cup of water please this guy’s a great lobbyist so
48:28
I’m sure yeah for your first podcast I’d say you did a fantastic job thank you for being here Clint we’ve enjoyed it
48:34
into your life and what an incredible thing you’ve been part of so yeah look guys thanks for having me on this is uh
48:40
really I love you love your podcast uh really uh love talking to you two guys
48:46
so I appreciate it thank you so we end every show you know um with the best day and no family stuff I mean
48:52
you’ve first of all it’s really refreshing and good because we’ve heard so much about how that has helped
48:58
formulate but maybe just like the best day of your life when um something and all the things that
49:04
you’ve done really stuck out sure um you know I think the best day of my life
49:10
I guess is I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story but yeah it’s like it’s not all that unusual
49:16
the best day of my life so it’s for first Battalion six Marines over there on the ground with the with
49:22
with the with the Infantry in that in urban environment yeah and uh my
49:27
daughter was born and I was over there so she was born on December 27 2006. and um I came home in March
49:36
they sent me home like a week early so I was by myself I had a piece of paper I
49:41
end up going through Bahrain or something like that and you know I’m in utilities I smell terrible I end up
49:48
getting to Atlanta Hartsfield we lived in Beaufort South Carolina at the time and I come into Atlanta and I know my
49:55
wife is is I think it was she was in Wilmington a little outside field there
50:01
Jenna she had my daughter never seen her and um and so I show up in Atlanta and
50:07
I’m waiting in line I mean it’s like there’s no way I mean I missed the flight everything and I’m like I cannot
50:14
call I’m in the United States I can’t call her and tell her that I’m not going to be on this flight
50:20
and so I thought about renting a car at the end of the day um I just went up to the lady at the
50:26
desk and I said look she’s like I can’t I just can’t help you I was like look I’ve been gone for a long time
50:32
I just need you to give me a deal here cut me some slack I haven’t seen my daughter she’s three months old and she
50:39
looked right at me she’s in the uniform and she said don’t say anything else about it cut a ticket put me on an
50:45
airplane put me on an airplane and it was awesome best day of my life
50:50
yeah and it’s got to be good because it’s even though he’s talking about family it’s not just you know daughter
50:56
born it’s actually a really great story yeah I mean it was that’s what we all need right now it’s just like that like cut me a little bit of slime hear me out
51:03
yeah and then come on it was she was not she was awesome that’s an awesome story it was great well Clint Weber thank you
51:09
for joining us we’re honored to have you man and as always thank you for your service yeah absolutely yeah thank you
51:15
cap checks Bank thanks guys somebody get Brinton a tissue see you next time
51:23
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