Memorial Day: Remembering two best friends, two soldiers.

“You will go into harm’s way. The sacrifice, 

[which] you have learned by now, 

is part of the job description.”

Travis L. Manion and Brendan Looney

The beautiful story of their friendship - in life and for eternity - was published in the Sunday news magazine Parade today.  It's a beautiful story of genuine friendship.  Friendship today can be so distorted and often superficial - especially when we consider the online version of friending and unfriending people we do not even know.

When best friends Travis Manion and Brendan Looney died defending their country, their families honored their unbreakable bond in the most profound of ways: by laying them to rest side by side at Arlington National Cemetery. This week, Parade tells their story. - Parade

Both friends came from Catholic families. Their friendship is an inspiration.

The duo didn’t gush about their friendship. “Alpha males don’t talk about how close they are,” says classmate Brian Stann. But they gave nonverbal cues—like the way they’d break into simultaneous laughter even if no one had said anything funny. - Parade

For me, their friendship exemplifies - validates and affirms - those blessed, manly friendships of history:  Such as Blessed Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St. John, St.'s Sergius and Bacchus, King David and Johnathan.  Honorable, pure, unadulterated friendship.

Brotherhood. Sacrifice. Love of God and country.

These men represent all the men and women who have given their lives in service to our Nation and society - all of those who have laid down their lives for their friends.