At Christmas, we count our blessings. At least for Americans, high atop the list is the blessing of having men and women who step forward to wear the uniform and place themselves between us and enemies who mean us harm.
Travis Manion and Brendan Looney were two such men. They were roommates at the US Naval Academy. Travis became a Marine who went to Iraq; Brendan, a Navy SEAL deployed to Afghanistan. Neither would live to make the return trip home. Today these brothers-in-arms lie side by side at Arlington National Cemetery.
Their story would be worth celebrating if it ended here. But it does not end here.
The mother of this Marine set up the Travis Manion Foundation with the goal of “honoring the fallen by challenging the living.” The Web site doesn’t mince words: “Our future leaders need heroes.”
One way it seeks to build them is through the Character Does Matter program. This program sends family members of our fallen troops into our schools and communities to share stories of their loved ones, with the hope that it will inspire young people to find their own way to serve. It seems to be working: This year the foundation reports that 58,464 hours of service were contributed in honor of our troops.
Most of us will never patrol a ridge in Afghanistan or fight in Iraq. Our challenges come as part of ordinary life: as citizens, as spouses, as friends and neighbors. This Christmas we give thanks for sacrifices of those like Lts. Manion and Looney — and for a foundation with enough faith in America’s young to realize the best way to make them strong is to challenge them.