Alumni from multiple colleges applied their expertise, building a breathtaking community hall and retreat center for Texas veterans and their families.

Many grand stories have small beginnings. 

This story begins with a man named Ronnie “Shorty” Glen Barnett. A Texas native, Shorty enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 17 and was deployed to Vietnam in 1969. This was Shorty’s way of seeing the world, a dream he’d had growing up in rural Texas. 

He served aboard the USS Rupertus DD-851. The vessel, constructed in the 1940s, carried several Americans across the cerulean waters of the Western Pacific during WWII, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Wars. 

Shorty and others aboard engaged in combat, shore bombardments and search and rescue operations through the Vietnam War. When Shorty’s service was finished, he returned to Texas. 

He married, had three sons and in 1986 moved to Dripping Springs where he became a beloved part of the community. He served in his church, volunteering for anything from maintenance to entertaining the preschoolers. He was a founding member of the American Legion Post 290/VFW Post 2933. 

Shorty offered those around him the same support he experienced in the Navy. 

He loved being a veteran.

The facility his groups met at was falling apart, though. In fact, by 2019, it was condemned by the city. Shorty, 74 at the time, posted hand-written flyers around the community. It called attention to the need the VFW and American Legion had for a new meeting space. 

“Any parcel of land within a 5-mile radius of Dripping Springs, suitable to build a butler-type building (2-3 acres) with ample parking area and soil for a well and septic would suit us to a ‘T,’” it read. 

And while he would have been content with an aluminum shed on two acres, that’s where Shorty’s story collided with a bigger one. 

A Flyer and A Dream

Shorty’s humble request was answered with Patriots’ Hall of Dripping Springs – and it’s a whole lot bigger than an aluminum shed.

The 10-acre Hill Country retreat is home to a 7,100 square foot main hall that offers creative and therapeutic workshops along with employment, transition, and education seminars. The retreat also boasts a wellness center staffed with certified mental health professionals and handles VA claims. 

There is also a meeting house just for the VFW.

But most of the acreage is dedicated to outdoor spaces for playscapes, a community garden, obstacle courses, hiking trails, a fishing pond, equestrian therapy and a few large patios with Adirondack chairs circling bonfires. 

The utopia was more than Shorty could have imagined. Luckily for him, his flyer set off a chain reaction of compassion. 

Kathryn Chandler is a resident of Dripping Springs and the wife of actor Kyle Chandler whose best-known credits include “Friday Night Lights” and “Manchester by the Sea.” 

Kathryn happens to be the daughter of a Vietnam veteran. She and her husband noticed the flyers Shorty had distributed while in town one day. The request pulled on their heartstrings, and Kathryn put out a call for help. 

While she had the influence to get the project accomplished, Kathryn needed others who knew how to draft, design and construct the actual building. 

Enter Hank Seale, a 1985 Texas Tech University alumnus who also happens to live in Dripping Springs. 

Seale listened to the concept of the small, simple meeting space. 

He wanted to dream bigger. 

“Veterans deserve better,” Seale emphasized. “But I knew that to truly build something better, we’d need a facility that could generate its own revenue.” 

Seale and his wife Lyssa pitched the idea of a retreat center that could be rented for weddings and events, in addition to a meeting hall for the VFW or American Legion meetings. Businesses could come and engage in team building. The community could host festivals. 

The center would be called Patriots’ Hall. 

The original draft on two acres quickly grew into a $10 million dollar project. But anyone who knew Seale wasn’t surprised by the surge of energy and vision. 

“There’s no small dreams with Hank; he’s a quintessential Texan,” said the architectural designer of the project, Darwin Harrison. 

Seale, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics, has founded more than 12 companies. 

“After graduating from Texas Tech, I was going to move home and help run the family ranch, but we lost it during the savings and loan crisis in the late ‘80s,” Seale reflected. 

What followed initial devastation though, was a decades-long career in financial technology startups. 

“I have no business background for this,” Seale said. “But I do have people skills, and I can build amazing teams. I learned how to do all that at Texas Tech.” 

Fast forward to 2019, Seale, his wife Lyssa, and the Chandlers assembled one of those amazing teams. 

It began with a board of directors and a building team. The latter happened to consist of two other Red Raiders: Darwin Harrison and Doug Moss, both graduates of Texas Tech’s Huckabee College of Architecture. 

Harrison says there was no master plan to recruit Red Raiders. There just happened to be alumni in the area who were highly skilled and philanthropically minded.

Seale and Harrison led programming sessions and conducted surveys to learn what veterans really needed.

“We found that just having an enjoyable space for veterans to talk with other veterans makes a big impact on mental health,” Harrison said. 

And veterans’ wellbeing was at the core of this project.  

Retired Gen. D. Scott McKean serves on the advisory board of Patriots’ Hall. After a 33-year career in the Army, McKean has witnessed it all.

“I saw the impacts these deployments have on not only soldiers themselves, but the families,” McKean said. “I look at my own family – my wife is a nurse, and she had to put her career on hold multiple times because we were moving from one place to the next. For years, she essentially was a single mom raising our kids.

“So, the commitment and the sacrifice are not only from service members, but their families too. That’s why what we’re trying to do with Patriots’ Hall is so important.”

There are approximately 18 suicides per day in the U.S. amongst veterans. Assimilating back into community is harder than it’s ever been. 

When Shorty returned home, the fabric of American society was very different than it is today. For the most part, families ate dinner together, neighbors knew each other and individuals weren’t exposed to an onslaught of global news every minute of the day. 

“That was the old guard, the veterans coming back from WWII and the Korean War; to some extent the Vietnam War,” McKean said. 

But there aren’t many remaining WWII and Korean War vets. Even those who fought in the Vietnam War are now, mostly, retired. 

“Then you have the Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans,” McKean continued. “I would offer that they’re probably the biggest current population of veterans. More than 2.2 million people served in the Iraq-Afghanistan period.

“All veterans are different because they have different needs. So, we're trying to adapt and meet those needs.”

To do this, the team at Patriots’ Hall learned that not only did veterans need spaces to meet and access medical and mental health services, but they were looking for places they could bring their families, see a dentist and even enrich their lives with new interests. 

“We wanted to build a space where veterans could get job training and therapy,” Harrison said. “Or maybe they could attend a book club, a music lesson or get critiques on their resume.” 

Seale says it’s not uncommon for veterans to have to meet in old, smoke-filled bars with billiard tables for entertainment. 

“Our research indicated this isn’t what veterans want,” Seale noted. “They wanted a space that would help recruit younger veterans and their families.” 

The family-centered approach is one aspect that makes Patriots’ Hall so unique. It was designed for spouses and children, as well as the veterans themselves. The team believes that re-integration happens as a family, not alone. 

An Easy Yes 

After the facility was designed on paper, the team needed a large firm that could carry it to fruition. Harrison is a one-man firm, and most of his expertise lies in residential work. His personalized touch on the project was key, but it was time to scale up.

Steinberg Hart, a global design, architecture and planning firm, was awarded the bid on the project. The director of its Austin office, Doug Moss, became the architect of record. 

“This was an easy yes for us,” Moss said. “It was an amazing project and mission. It’s all Darwin’s design; we were just there to help administratively.” 

Steinberg Hart mostly works on public projects – spaces that impact the masses. So, this was in the firm’s sweet spot. David Hart, president and CEO of the firm, also is a Texas Tech alumnus and his passion for contributing to communities is a value felt throughout the team. 

“Veterans and their families have made this incredible sacrifice,” Moss said. “We were thrilled to join in this vision of creating a special place for them.” 

Moss, like Seale, has seen veterans’ groups meet in dingy bars, old church basements or even overly formal spaces.

“We wanted to create something that was reflective of the free spirit of Texas,” Moss said. “We wanted veterans to feel comfortable when they came in; to feel they don’t have to dress or act a certain way.” 

But the team was insistent that comfort didn’t mean beauty would be sacrificed. 

When the ribbon was finally cut on the VFW meeting house (by Shorty) in 2022, Seale delighted in the comments he overheard from veterans as they walked in. 

“You did this for us?” they asked. “We never get something this nice.” 

The main hall and wellness center opened to the public in the fall of 2024. 

Measured Impact

Today, Patriots’ Hall has completed its main phases of building. Next will come the installation of a fishing pond and outdoor pavilion.  

“Now veterans have this beautiful, first-class building,” Seale beamed. “But it’s not opulent. It’s not so nice that they can’t play pool.”

The center has already served 1,700 veterans and their families through its staff of seven and 100-plus volunteers. 

The two organizations that meet regularly now have a space where they can continue to recruit and grow.

In 2025 alone, Patriots’ Hall has hosted commemorations, blood drives, painting classes, stained glass workshops, yoga, cyber-security workshops, Taco Tuesday dinners, job fairs and even a tomato trellis pruning. 

Starting Small, Scaling Up

Shorty didn’t live to see the grand opening of Patriots’ Hall. He passed away on Feb. 17, 2023, but his legacy lives on as the director emeritus of the organization. 

In an interview shortly before he died, he said, “We have to help other people. That’s what makes the world go around. Without it, we’d sink in a heartbeat.” 

Shorty said there wasn’t a soul in this world he wouldn’t break his back for. 

Seale and the team are still dreaming of what could be. It’s their way of honoring Shorty.

“Our goal is to execute the mission at this location and refine a program that is repeatable,” Seale said. “We’ve already had other cities around the country reach out and ask us to help them do something similar.” 

Each Red Raider on the team enthusiastically plans to continue helping as they can. It’s an attitude they trace back to the West Texas roots at their alma mater. 

But for now, the team is focused on fulfilling their promise to the veterans of Central Texas, the densest veteran population in the country.