Tom Sileo (30 page)

1
ST
L
T.
T
RAVIS
M
ANION
, USMC

S
PARTAN
, H
ERO
, L
EADER

KIA I
RAQI
F
REEDOM
, 29 A
PR.
'07

“Always remember,” Janet said. “Someone is looking out for you.”

Brendan hugged Janet, shook Tom's hand, and thanked them both, then held up the bracelet and promised, “I'll wear this every single day for the rest of my life.”

Two days later, on the Monday morning after the Marine Corps Marathon, Tom, Janet, Ryan, and Dave stood in the Oval Office as President George W. Bush opened the door and walked straight toward Travis's mom.

He gave her a hug.

“Janet, I am so sorry,” the president said. “Your loss is my loss.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Janet replied.

After hugging Ryan and shaking Tom's and Dave's hands, President Bush expressed his appreciation for the men and women who had served so bravely overseas, including Travis.

“Today, I'm not the commander-in-chief,” the president said. “I'm the consoler-in-chief.”

As the visit concluded, Ryan gave President Bush a T-shirt from Sunday's Marine Corps Marathon.

After thanking Ryan for the shirt, the president said he would make sure it was stored in a safe place. Ryan then shared a detail about the marathon.

“Travis was going to run the marathon this year and actually signed up for it before he left,” she said. “So after he was killed, we all started training.”

Ryan told the president that her dad wore both his and Travis's numbers during the race. At the marathon, she explained, runners are given computer chips to put in their running shoes so they can accurately record race times.

“My dad had both his and Travis's chips, but before the race started, he forgot to note which chip was on which sneaker,” Ryan
said. “He wanted Travis to finish first, but now we're not sure how it turned out. . . . We're going to check tonight.”

The president, who was moved by the story and the Manion family's courage, met with and wrote letters to thousands of military families during his eight years in office. With no end to the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan in sight, President Bush would soon pass the torch to his successor, who would be thrust into the dual wartime role of commander and consoler-in-chief.

After giving an emotional speech on Saturday night and running the full Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday in the nation's capital, Brendan reported for duty first thing Monday morning on the Southern California island of Coronado. SQT was just a few months away, and in the meantime, he and Sarver would tackle JOTC and Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training. Though Brendan had cleared a major hurdle toward becoming a Navy SEAL, much hard work still lay ahead.

As Monday began, few of those stationed at NAB Coronado knew that just twenty-four hours earlier, Brendan had been running 26.2 miles on the East Coast. While he drank a lot of coffee and took plenty of Advil that day, not once did Brendan complain about being weary, achy, or exhausted. No matter what it took, he was going to salute Travis by running the entire marathon.

In the shadow of the Iwo Jima Memorial, Brendan could picture Travis running next to him as he summoned his last ounce of strength to cross the finish line. The marathon may have symbolized their last race, but no matter what was on the horizon, Brendan knew Travis would always push him forward.

Later, when the Manions got the official results of the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon, they learned that Tom had finished in 7,567th place. Sure enough, Travis finished 7,566th, a split second before his dad.

10

MAGGIE'S PRAYER

“G
od bless Uncle Travis,” a blonde-haired, two-year-old girl said in her soft, tender voice.

A step down from her family's kitchen, where little Maggie Rose Borek was saying her prayers at the dinner table, pictures of Travis hung on the living room wall. One photo showed the smiling Marine holding her when she was a baby.

Old enough to comprehend that her uncle had gone to heaven, Maggie finished her nightly prayers on a muggy summer evening in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Fourteen months earlier, flag-carrying mourners had solemnly filled Doylestown's quaint streets to honor Travis after he was killed on April 29, 2007.

As Maggie prayed for her fallen uncle on July 12, 2008, the city and surrounding Bucks County were bustling with life. Malls and movie theaters were packed; hoagie and ice cream shops had long lines; and most television screens portrayed the 2008 presidential campaign, along with Philadelphia Phillies games, instead of the daily struggles and accomplishments of US troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. After Travis died, things went back to normal for almost everyone except the Manions, whose lives had not been the same since two Marines arrived at their door on a horrible Sunday that Maggie was mercifully too young to remember.

Maggie's mom and Travis's sister, Ryan, had been aware of the risks of her younger brother's post-9/11 military service, but never really thought Maggie would grow up learning about her uncle through stories and pictures. Ryan had even dismissed Travis's attempt to bring up the possibility of not coming home from Iraq, preferring to imagine a world in which tragedy couldn't reach her family's doorstep.

Ryan and Travis's parents, Tom and Janet, weren't in Doylestown that night. They were in Annapolis, Maryland, for the wedding of Amy and Brendan, who were getting married not far from the dorm where Brendan and Travis had roomed together. Ryan had spoken to her mom earlier that day, who had said she was dreading her first overnight stay in Annapolis since Travis's death. But seeing Brendan for the first time in almost a year would make the pain worthwhile.

Ryan knew how close Travis had been to Brendan, his now twenty-seven-year-old, former US Naval Academy roommate. She also knew that Travis should have been one of Brendan's groomsmen, which weighed heavily on her mind as the sun set during a mild Pennsylvania thunderstorm.

After putting Maggie to bed Ryan, who was six months pregnant with her second child, watched the rain from the window of her darkened upstairs bedroom. The Marine's pretty older sister, who always wore a bracelet bearing Travis's name, pictured what should have been happening that night: her brother, her parents, and Brendan laughing up a storm and doing shots of Patrón, just like at their friend Ben Mathews's wedding shortly before Travis was killed.

Ryan still spoke about her little brother in the present tense and usually immersed herself in long hours at work to avoid thinking about losing him. But on this Saturday night, there was no escape.

Sitting in a beautiful, bright Catholic church, Ryan and Travis's parents were watching Brendan marry Amy Hastings. Now twenty-seven, Amy knew that being the wife of a Navy SEAL would require resilience, which was one of her defining characteristics. Amy had been working full time since she was fifteen years old. Since she had met Brendan during her college years, Amy had also weathered his deployments to Iraq and Korea. Without Amy's emotional toughness, she and Brendan may have never reached the altar.

While it was hot and humid in Brendan's home state of Maryland, the night was foggy for the Manions, who were still in shock from losing their only son. As the wedding festivities kicked off, they felt as though they were looking into the church from the nightmare they had been living outside its walls.

With the Manions and about 250 other guests watching, a nervous Navy SEAL waited at the altar. Beads of sweat formed on Brendan's forehead as the tall, bulky, brown-haired groom stood in his black, gold-trimmed US Navy “mess dress” uniform. Awaiting Amy's grand entrance in her gorgeous ivory gown was even more anxiety invoking than a lengthy room inspection at the Naval Academy or BUD/S training.

There was no clock in the church, but Brendan may have still been able to hear one ticking. In forty-eight hours the Navy SEAL would deploy to Iraq, where Travis had been killed just fourteen months before.

If he looked to his left, Brendan would think of his dear friend, who would certainly have stood up in the wedding if he had made it back from Iraq alive. Brendan had already told Amy that he couldn't handle seeing an empty spot for his departed groomsman next to the altar and his two younger brothers, “best men” Steve and Billy. He also didn't want to risk upsetting Amy, who was also mourning Travis.

To the Manions and virtually everyone else, Amy appeared calm and composed as she glided toward the altar and the man she
was so excited to be marrying. As Father Damian started the Mass, Amy whispered her love in Brendan's ear.