Tom Sileo (40 page)

Even while missing his wife, parents, siblings, and friends, Brendan's spirits remained high during his 2010 deployment to southeastern Afghanistan.

Tom and Janet Manion receive a folded American flag symbolizing the ultimate sacrifice made by their only son. Travis was reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery on October 1, 2010, more than three years after the fallen Marine was originally buried in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

In front of a group of US Marines who took a bus to Arlington National Cemetery from Manion Hall, Tom and Janet Manion, along with Ryan and Maggie Borek, lay flowers on the casket of First Lieutenant Travis Manion during his reinterment ceremony.
Alex Wong/Getty Images North America

A fellow SEAL pounds his trident into the casket of fallen US Navy Lieutenant Brendan Looney at his October 4, 2010, burial service at Arlington National Cemetery.

President Barack Obama visits the graves of First Lieutenant Travis Manion and Lieutenant (SEAL) Brendan Looney following his Memorial Day address on May 30, 2011. A framed version of this photograph was subsequently placed in the West Wing of the White House.

Thanks to Amy's “friend-finder,” Travis's sister and Brendan's wife became the very best of friends.

Travis's nieces, Maggie and Honor Borek, wear their respective Travis Manion Foundation and US Naval Academy shirts to honor their fallen uncle.

While icing her aching knee, Amy shows her Marine Corps Marathon medal to Maggie on October 30, 2011, in Washington, DC.

Maggie visits her Uncle Travis at Arlington National Cemetery.

Surrounded by fellow heroes, US Marine First Lieutenant Travis Manion and US Navy Lieutenant (SEAL) Brendan Looney are buried side by side in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where many fallen warriors of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars rest.
Matthew Sileo/Courtesy of Matthew Sileo Photography

14

WARRIORS FOR FREEDOM

F
or Amy, the evening of May 1, 2011, was like many nights during the seven and a half months since Brendan had been killed. She was sad and lonely, but also surrounded by kindhearted friends in the tight-knit Navy SEAL community.

Still in San Diego, swamped by thoughts of what was and what could have been, virtually everything reminded Amy of Brendan. There was the coffee machine that ran out of coffee on the same week her husband would have come home from Afghanistan. There was the box of rainbow sprinkles she bought for her ice cream after one of their last phone conversations. There was the care package that Brendan planned to send Travis before he was killed in Iraq. Even though the magazines inside the box were old and outdated, Brendan could never bring himself to throw it away. Amy shed a tear as she flipped through them.

There was also a whiteboard in the garage where Brendan used to exercise that said “NFTM 4–29–07” in his handwriting. Amy, who hadn't previously noticed the initials while that particular corner of the whiteboard was hidden behind stacks of boxes, quickly realized it stood for “Never Forget Travis Manion, 4–29–07.” Brendan had written it to inspire himself during grueling workouts, similar to the ones he used to have with Travis.

Day and night, Amy often felt like Brendan was still alive.
He was just here
.

The young widow spent that evening near the beach with a friend who was married to an active duty Navy SEAL. As spouses often did during deployments, and especially after a team member was injured or killed, Amy's friend Lindsey was cooking her dinner. Just like on the battlefield, no member of the SEAL community was ever left behind, and when Amy returned to California after three nightmarish weeks in Maryland, she was enveloped with love, support, and most of all, food. Amy could probably count the number of meals she had cooked for the first few months after Brendan's death on one hand.

Amy and her friend were eating chicken parmigiana and having a freewheeling, spirited discussion when they noticed that Sunday evening television programming had been interrupted by a special report. President Barack Obama was about to give a “major” address to the nation, and for at least a few minutes, nobody seemed to know what he was about to say.