From left: Landon, Kyle and Connor Bräck pose for a family photo. Photo by Adam Baker.
Sunday, September 12, 2010, was a day for the history books in the Bräck family... the end of an era. That’s the day Kyle Bräck could no longer beat his sons Connor and Landon in basketball due to an ACL injury. Although he may not win any more on the court, Kyle says he won in life because he gets to work with his sons at Pantex.
“This is such an oddity in this day and age to be able to work together; it’s so rare,” Kyle said. “It hearkens to the old years of farming families, being able to work together, that hardly ever exists anymore. We have the strong realization this is a privilege.”
Landon is a system-requirements engineer and Connor is a software automation and engineering management analyst. Kyle has been employed at Pantex two separate times but is currently an adviser in Emergency Services. One of the Bräcks’ favorite things to do revolves around, you guessed it, basketball. They often travel to watch Texas Tech University, their alma mater. A 2019 trip to watch Tech play Duke in New York marked the start of Landon’s Pantex career. That weekend, he got the call to intern at Pantex while at a hotel in Manhattan.
“I did my Pantex interview in the hotel room and was told I got the engineering intern position,” Landon said. “Then, we went out to Madison Square Garden to celebrate during Christmastime in New York.”
Connor was the last to join the family as a Pantexan in 2024 and was grateful to have his brother and dad around to help.
“Everyone knows it’s daunting or can be scary when you join here because of all of the new things you learn,” Connor said. “My first week I was full-time teleworking and couldn’t log in to the VPN. Luckily, my brother was right down the hall and helped guide me through it.”
Kyle and Connor recently worked on the mass-notification system update to Everbridge, among other Digital Transformation-related projects.
“I was on a meeting with other people but my dad was on there, and when it came my turn to talk, I wasn’t quite sure what to say, and I wasn’t going to call him his government name or Mr. Father, so I just called him dad. In the beginning I was timid, but he’s my dad.”
Adviser, coach, and mentor are a few of the other titles Kyle holds at the plant. His proudest title, however, is father.
“Our dad coached us in everything,” Connor said. “He came to all our events. He would choose to do that over anything else every time. He used to come to lunch at school to play basketball with all the kids. Coached all our buddies. He was and is a very present dad.”
Coaching didn’t stop at athletics. Kyle says he catches himself counseling his sons while at work.
“Now it’s not school or sports but life,” Kyle said. “I do still mentor them on how to carry themselves in a meeting, how to position themselves or helping give career advice at Pantex.”
Part of the Bräck family legacy at Pantex revolves around the basketball league. When Kyle was at Pantex the first time, he played. Connor currently plays and Landon is the league president.
“Back then, Pantex Basketball won the city league,” Kyle said. “Before we took pictures, I saw the broom closet open, ran and got a broom, because it was a clean sweep.”
Landon and Connor haven’t won any clean sweeps but insist that is because the league is tougher now than back when their dad was playing. Just like the league, many things may have changed over the years... and that’s not always a bad thing.
“He used to drop us off at preschool,” Landon said. “And when I was hired on at Pantex, I started dropping him off at work. Our lives did a 360 and we’re grateful for it. Our dad is the perfect example of a Pantexan who takes pride in what he does and works to share his knowledge with others around him and we get to be here to watch him do that.”