The Navy officers' crest is emblazoned on Dougherty Hall on the University of Louisville's Belknap Campus—a point of pride for graduates Brad Hicks, Mike Vitale and Stu O'Bryan.

Nearly every time they return to campus they stop at the building, the former home of UofL's Navy ROTC program. It now houses the Army and Air Force ROTC programs. For Hicks, Vitale and O'Bryan, the crest is almost a shrine to their active and happy undergraduate days in the Navy commissioned officers' program that shut down in 1980.

"It was sad to see the Navy ROTC program go because it was a good one," Hicks says. "The two smartest decisions that I ever made were going to the NROTC program and going to UofL. It's a good school."

During its nearly 40-year run, the NROTC turned out approximately 500 officers for service in the Navy and Marines. But few have reached the stature shared by this particular trio. When they graduated (Hicks in 1976, Vitale in 1977 and O'Bryan in 1978) they all decided to "drive" ships as opposed to flying aircraft or serving aboard a submarine.

Remarkably, they have all become rear admirals in the U.S. Navy, an honorable and rare achievement. In fact, admirals of all star levels total only 220. Approximately 10 are full (or four-star) admirals and around 25 are three-star vice admirals. The rest are rear admirals with one or two stars. Hicks has two stars, Vitale has been nominated for his second star and O'Bryan has one.

One-star and two-star admirals are appointed by a Naval selection board. Three- and four-star admirals are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Never did any of the three UofL grads imagine that they would go so far up the chain of command. Their immediate goals upon graduation were more practical—get through a four-year tour of duty and earn promotions as they went "above and beyond."

Never did they dream that they would command ships—but all three did. In recent years, O'Bryan commanded a fleet of ships and submarines in the Red Sea during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Vitale served aboard a ship that provided backup support to the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1979. That was well before he secured his first star, an occurrence that caught him off guard. Hicks was surprised about his star, too.

"I'm still shocked about getting this far in the Navy and am very thankful," says Hicks, echoing comments by Vitale and O'Bryan.

Their stunning career achievements began, of course, at UofL, where all played intramural sports and reveled in the ROTC squad capturing the Captain's Cup for many consecutive years. They drilled and studied and drilled some more. Hicks' class sponsored the women's "Powder Puff" football team. All three rave about their instructors and the quality of the academic program at UofL.

They also knew each other at UofL where the ROTC classes were small and disciplined with plenty of opportunity for team building.

"I enjoyed the camaraderie," O'Bryan recalls.

Hicks recalls vividly his ROTC instructors, crediting them for molding him into an officer and a gentleman.

"Capt. Smith and Col. Hawes were great instructors," he says. "They were Vietnam vets and good role models, very inspirational."

Rear Adm. Alan B. "Brad" Hicks

Hicks, 53, is program director of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense, part of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), in Arlington, Va.

A Louisville native who lived for a time in Jeffersontown, Hicks broke with family tradition when he joined the Navy. His father was Kentucky director of the Selective Service System following a 30-year U.S. Army career, the fourth generation in the family to serve in the Army. (Hicks' eldest son is the fifth, currently deployed with the Army in Baghdad.)

"I wanted to travel and to give something back to my country," he says.

He has definitely seen the world—though mostly by plane.

In 2007 alone, Hicks has been on official business to Japan, Germany, England, Australia, Hawaii, California, Arizona and New Jersey. Last year, he racked up 120,000 miles on his frequent flyer program.

Hicks was the first of the three rear admirals to be commissioned in UofL's Navy ROTC program. That came in 1976 when he received a degree in international studies and economics.

His first naval assignment was aboard the tank-landing ship USS Schenect-ady serving as navigator and gunnery officer. He quickly worked his way through the ranks, becoming executive officer on the destroyer USS Caron in 1987.

Fresh out of NROTC, Hicks had set his sights on serving a four-year term, then returning to UofL to study law. After year 7 or 8, he established a new goal: command a ship. That came in 1994 with his appointment to command the destroyer USS Hayler.

Spanning both ship and shore, his career has also included service to the Chief of Naval Operations, one of the highest-ranking positions in the Navy—a post traditionally held by an admiral.

He and his wife have three children and three grandchildren.

Rear Adm. Michael C. Vitale

Vitale, 52, is commander of Carrier Strike Group Two in Norfolk, Va., in charge of 10,500 men and women. His newest assignment will be as commander of the Navy's Southeast Region, based in Jacksonville, Fla., comprising 21 bases in nine states.

When interviewed in June, he was headed to the Baltics to take charge of a joint exercise (anti-submarine warfare as one main focal area) consisting of the U.S. Navy and nine allies. During his career, he calculates that he has visited at least one-third of all the world's countries on Navy business.

This native New Yorker (from Endicott near Binghamton in the Empire State) was attending Clemson University in South Carolina when the Navy granted him a two-year ROTC scholarship. Of the schools where he applied, UofL was the first to answer affirmatively. That was in 1975.

Vitale said he most fondly remembers his ROTC class dominating intramural sports at UofL, winning (and keeping) the Captain's Cup for many years.

"We had a great time," he says.

An accounting major, he assessed his academic course as "very good."

"I got a lot out of it," he says.

Nevertheless, he did not pursue an accounting career, choosing instead to concentrate on strategic planning during his post-graduate military training. In 1996–97, he commanded the USS John S. McCain, a destroyer. This came nearly 20 years after his first on-board tour with the USS Reeves, a guided missile cruiser out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

During his tour, the Reeves participated in the ill-fated attempted rescue of U.S. hostages that were held in Teh-ran, Iran.

In 2004 he came full circle, returning to Hawaii for a two-year tour as commander of the Navy Region out of Pearl Harbor.

No matter where Vitale has served, he has kept up with Cardinal sports—"especially football."

He and his wife have two children and live in Hawaii.

Rear Adm. M. Stewart O'Bryan

Louisville native O'Bryan, 52, is director of the Standing Joint Force Headquarters in Norfolk, Va. In September, he will become commander of the Carrier Strike Group out of Washington State. The command consists of a carrier with an air wing, a cruiser, submarines and several destroyers and frigates—with well over 5,000 uniformed personnel.

O'Bryan earned his B.S. degree in management at UofL, commuting to campus from his parents' home. He acknowledged that he was not a strong undergraduate.

"Academics were not my forte, but UofL stuck with me and kept pushing me through," he says. "It worked out just fine."

His folks still live in Louisville, as do four of his five siblings.

O'Bryan followed in his father's footsteps in the ROTC program. His father spent 23 years in the Navy before retiring in 1972.

"One of my early goals was to be a commanding officer of a ship," he says. That was realized aboard the minesweeper USS Excel. O'Bryan also commanded the USS Cole in the late 1990s.

Tragically, an October 2000 terrorist bombing in a Yemeni harbor killed 17 sailors and wounded 39 others aboard that ship.

The rear admiral has served 29 years in the naval service, with nine major deployments of six months or more. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, his ships fired Tomahawk missiles into Iraq in support of U.S. ground troops.

O'Bryan has also served during peacetime, including a tour of duty in Gaeta, Italy, as staff member of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Shore duty included time as a recruiter in Louisville, which included frequent trips back to his alma mater.

"UofL has schools that are high in rankings around the nation," he says. "The school has a tremendous record academically."

He owns up to being a rabid Cardinals fan, flying the team's flags at his home. He attended the Orange Bowl game last year with a son.

He and his wife have three children and live in Virginia.

When it's time to go, you'll know

All three rear admirals are eligible for retirement, but none is ready for that, concentrating instead on new challenges in new locations. Mandatory retirement is age 62, unless extended by the Secretary of the Navy. If any harbor ambitions to become a vice admiral or the extremely rare full admiral, they are keeping them close to the vest.

"There's no way of predicting what might happen," Vitale says. "We all three have been very lucky to have achieved what we have so far. If it all ends tomorrow, it ends tomorrow. There's an old Navy cliché, ‘When it's time to go, you'll know.' "

Hicks said retirement has crossed his mind, but he doesn't dwell on it.

"If I retired in a year or two, that would be fine," he says, adding lightheartedly, "As my wife says, then I'd have to get a real job!"

O'Bryan said he would not turn down additional stars in the admiralty.

"That would be all the better," he says. "My wife reminds me that I was thinking about retirement with 20 years of service. Now it's (nearly) 30."

He and his wife would consider retiring to Louisville—"but only when the Navy gets done with me.