Their sacrifice

Navy Lt. Nick Brantley and two other crew members died Sept. 25, 2005, when their SH-60B Seahawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise off the coast of North Carolina. Brantley's family is still awaiting results of the Navy investigation. Five former Tech students who were killed in Iraq have been added to the school's War Memorial. They are:

• Army 1st Lt. Jeffrey Kaylor, who was killed in an April 2003 grenade attack.
• Army 1st Lt. Tim Price, who died in Sept. 2004 while trying to secure a perimeter around a military vehicle that had been hit by hostile fire.
• Army Spec. Nicholas Mason, who was killed in a Dec. 2004 suicide bombing.
• Army Staff Sgt. Nathaniel Nyren, who died when a civilian vehicle struck his Humvee in Dec. 2004.
• Marine Cpl. Christopher Weaver, who was killed in a Jan. 2005 rocket-propelled grenade attack.

BLACKSBURG — Members of Virginia Tech’s Corps of Cadets 3rd Battalion used to gather for meals under the watchful eyes of student commander Thomas “Nick” Brantley.

As they assemble to eat this year, corps members will be reminded of Brantley’s sacrifice. The Hokie bird statue wearing a corps uniform outside Shultz Hall was installed in Brantley’s memory.

Classmates of the U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who died at age 27 while training to serve in the Persian Gulf had been searching for a way to commemorate him when they learned of the Gobble de Art project to put Hokie bird statues all over town.

They commissioned a memorial statue for Brantley. Unlike the five former Tech students killed in Iraq, Brantley is not eligible to be listed on the university’s War Memorial because he was not killed in a combat zone.

“Nick always went above and beyond for us, so we had to go above and beyond for him,” said Jay Johnston, a U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now stationed in Germany.

The idea for the $7,500 statue arose when Johnston’s father, Fred Johnston, also a corps alumnus, sent his son a pamphlet on the Gobble de Art project.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

The "That I May Serve - Nick Brantley Memorial" Hokie bird sits on the on Virginia Tech's upper quad near Shultz Dinning Hall. The Corp of Cadet residence hall is in the background.

After getting the commission, the artist, Sarah Meadows of Bedford, e-mailed Jay Johnston and two other members of Brantley’s class of 2001 to find out more about her subject. She painted items on the Hokie bird’s tail feathers to illustrate Brantley’s passions, including NASCAR, helicopters and fishing. Meadows, who graduated from Tech in 2004, did online research to get the details right on the corps uniform the bird is wearing.

The consensus is she nailed it.

“It’s a combination of the school, the corps and everything that was important to him,” said Dwight Brungard, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, who corresponded with Meadows about the statue.

“He looks sharp,” Maj. Gen. Jerrold Allen, the corps commandant, said while looking over the bird with Meadows one recent afternoon.

“I think it’s a fun, yet respectful way of remembering Nick Brantley,” said Casey Middleton, a Tampa, Fla., native who commands the corps’ 2nd Battalion and is majoring in political science.

Of the more than 50 Hokie birds that have been installed around Blacksburg, the Brantley statue, titled “That I May Serve,” is the only memorial. Its title is also the Virginia Tech motto.

“It’s a very humbling thing to even be chosen for a memorial,” Meadows said, adding that she is also honored to have a work of art become a fixture at her alma mater.

Brantley’s family in North Carolina are also fans of the statue.

“I thought it pretty much characterized him real well,” said Brantley’s father, Keith Brantley.

“We have seen the pictures, and it’s very nice to think that people thought that much of our son — that they would want to have a statue done so other people would not forget him,” said Joyce Brantley.

“It’s a very well-designed tribute to all the things that were most important to him,” said Mary Ruth Brantley, Nick Brantley’s widow.

She said she takes comfort in the statue and the fact that her husband’s friends from Tech have continued to stay in touch.

“They live in all different states but come to visit or call every week or two,” Mary Ruth Brantley said. “It’s very obvious that our friendships are true friendships, and they honestly care about me.”

The alumni involved in creating the statue hope it will be inspiring for current members of the Corps of Cadets.

“You might have some really close friends before you come to Tech, but what you are going to leave with are family — people who would do anything for you,” said Shawn Cagle, who helped describe Brantley to Meadows.

Artist Sarah Meadows of Bedford sketched out her plan for the "So I May Serve" Hokie bird before she started on the actual fiberglass statue.

Check out pictures of many more Hokie bird statutes and map their locations in Blacksburg. Click here.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Artist Sarah Meadows touches the hat of the memorial she created for the Corps. Several cadets agree that she nailed it.

Vandals steal bird's hat

The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets had planned to move the Nick Brantley memorial Hokie bird indoors in October, but recently was considering pushing that date forward in response to vandalism. Someone ripped off the statue's hat.

"It was a great disappointment," said Col. Rock Roszak, the corps' associate director of alumni relations. "You've got to assume that somebody didn't understand what the statue was about."

Besides losing its authentic corps hat, the statue suffered minimal damage. It will be repaired by its artist, said Janet Johnson, chairwoman of the Blacksburg Partnership's Gobble de Art project. Multiple statues from the project have been vandalized or moved.

"These are not just pranks," Johnson said. "These are serious acts against works that are very, very fine art."

Roszak said some cadets had devised a temporary fix for the memorial statue. "They put a new hat on him so he was not bald."