Raised in a small Pennsylvania town, Brett Weaver was an active kid.
“I grew up hunting, fishing, playing in the woods, going out building stick forts and just running through the woods and having a good time,” he said.
Alongside summer camps and family camping, outdoor recreation has played a central role in shaping who Weaver is today.
“I'd much rather be outside running around,' he said.
Adventurous by nature, it was no surprise that when he felt the itch as a child for aviation, he pursued it.
'Helicopters just all of a sudden became this thing for me, and the Army was the easiest way for me to go about chasing that,' Weaver said.
Almost immediately after high school, Weaver joined the Army as a mechanic.
“I just kind of fell in love with the mechanic life, transitioned from Apache [helicopters] to Black Hawks, where I got the chance to do a lot of flying,” Weaver said. “I was a flight instructor and everything.”
After 20 years of service, Weaver retired in August and decided it was time for a new chapter.
He participated in the SkillBridge program, a national initiative that helps military personnel transition out of service.
That’s where he discovered the state parks system and learned about the different roles.
In that moment, something inside him clicked, and he knew he wanted to be involved.
“Taking care of nature, taking care of something that preserves what I got to grow up in and be able to give that back to other people just felt like a really cool idea,” Weaver shared.
While transitioning out of the Army, Weaver interned at Franklin Mountains State Park and Hueco Tanks State Park, both near El Paso, where he was last stationed.
There, he gained hands-on experience in customer service, maintenance, leadership and interpretation, along with everything that involves working at a state park.
Through it, he learned new skills and was able to pair them with those from his military background.
After interning and being stationed in El Paso, Weaver was captivated by Texas charm and knew he wanted to stay, so he moved East with his wife and kids when he was offered a position at Ray Roberts.
Now he works on the Ray Roberts Isle du Bois State Park maintenance team as a backup utility plant operator to Chris Sowell.
Ray Roberts Lake State Park Superintendent Robbie Merritt said Weaver has “brought a great deal of mechanical knowledge to the job.”
“He’s helped us troubleshoot some mechanical stuff that we’ve had going on,” Merritt said. “He’s been a good addition.”
Still fresh from the military, Weaver said there are moments when he’s adjusting to civilian life.
“There have been times where … I want to kind of revert back … to the military style of handling things, and I know that that's not it, so it's helping me learn and grow as well,” Weaver said.
As he continues working in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Weaver’s ultimate goal is to return to a leadership role, this time as a park superintendent.
The idea of managing a park— taking responsibility for it and all that it involves, including maintaining and protecting it for visitors—is something that interests him because of his appreciation for nature since childhood, and it’s a passion he wants to continue to share.
'I have an understanding that just because nature's here doesn't mean people know how to be in it or take into account the things that are around you,' Weaver said.
Sitting with nature, listening closely to birds, crickets and other wildlife, and stopping to observe squirrels, rabbits and deer prance by, brings him joy in life’s simple moments.
'If you take the time to stop and listen, you'll know that there's a lot more going on around you than what it seems,” Weaver said.
“ If you take the time to stop and listen, you’ll know that there’s a lot more going on around you than what it seems.”
