Chief Warrant Officer, Two, Bryan J. Nichols, 31, of Overland Park, Kansas, was among 30 soldiers that lost their lives when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter he was piloting was shot down on August 6, 2011, in Wardak Province, Afghanistan.  The TMP-Marian High School graduate enlisted in the Army in 1996, deploying to Iraq and then Kosovo between 2002 and 2004.  He completed flight school in 2008.  Bryan was survived by his wife Mary, his son Braydon, his parents, Douglas and Cynthia, two brothers, a sister, and many others.

The Travis Manion Foundation honored CW2 Bryan Nichols with 30 other Fallen Heroes through our Character Does Matter program at the Westover School in Middlebury, Conn., on Jan. 18, 2013. Bryan’s family honored him on the 2016 New Mexico Expedition.