While reading this book and then seeing how things are unraveling again in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, one can see again what they fought for. It also takes you into their family's homes in the aftermath of their deaths where you feel their loss almost as if it was a personal loss to yourself.

The book is very well written by Tom Sileo and the father of Travis Manion, and takes you along on their journeys from boys fresh out of school to being inspiring warriors who wanted to serve and make a difference in the world.

It follows the lives of two young men from their days as room mates at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis until they both lost their lives fighting for their country, the one a Marine in Iraq and the other a SEAL in Afghanistan. What an incredible and powerful read this was for me, heartbreaking yet inspiring. From Travis’s incredible heroism on the streets of Fallujah to Brendan’s anguished Navy SEAL training in the wake of his friend’s death and his own heroism in the mountains of Afghanistan, Brothers Forever is a remarkable story of friendship, family, and war. Although they were killed three years apart, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, these two best friends and former roommates were now buried together-“brothers forever.”Īward-winning journalist Tom Sileo and Travis’s father, former Marine colonel Tom Manion, tell the intimate and personal story of how these Naval Academy roommates defined a generation’s sacrifice after 9/11, and how Travis and Brendan’s loved ones overcame heartbreak to carry on in their memory. In his Memorial Day address, he extolled the courage and sacrifice of the two young men buried side by side in the graves before him: Travis Manion, a fallen US Marine, and Brendan Looney, a fallen US Navy SEAL. Four weeks after Navy SEALs had killed Osama bin Laden, the President of the United States stood in Arlington National Cemetery.

Brothers Forever by Patrick Winsor