Tom Sileo by Brothers Forever Page A

Ravens. At the time, it was the largest crowd to attend a nonbasketballchampionship game in NCAA history.
    In the parking lot was Second Lieutenant Travis Manion, a newly commissioned US Marine officer who had just graduated in front of his proud mom, dad, sister, and someone who had been instrumental in making his second chance at the Naval Academy possible: Lieutenant Colonel Corky Gardner. Travis was standing on top of a car leading a “Let’s go Navy” chant by hundreds of frenzied fans. After his shoulder injury had caused him to miss the entire second half of his senior wrestling season, this was a championship game for Travis, too.
    In the stadium, Travis sat with the midshipmen, while Tom and Janet Manion joined Brendan’s parents, Kevin and Maureen Looney. Exactly one year earlier, Brendan had met Amy just a few blocks from the stadium where he was about to play the biggest game of his life. Now Amy was stuck at work and couldn’t attend the game, but she was planning to meet the Looney brothers and Travis almost immediately afterward.
    As newly commissioned US Navy Ensign Brendan Looney sat in the Ravens locker room, he was reminded of the 2001 Army-Navy football game, especially when his coach pointed out that Naval Academy graduates were currently fighting overseas. Ever since Navy had started its NCAA tournament run, and especiallysince the Midshipmen had beaten Princeton in Saturday’s national semifinal, messages of support had poured in from military bases all over the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Syracuse head coachJohn Desko admitted that some of his own players were struggling with the idea of seemingly playing against their country. “One of our guys just read an article in the Baltimore paper about Navy and Memorial Day and wartime and said, ‘I almost want Navy to win,’” Desko said. “They’ll have a lot of people rooting for them.”
    Indeed, there was no such thing as a “neutral” fan at the 2004 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship Game. You were a Syracuse student, parent, or graduate, or you were a Navy fan. Some Syracuse alumni even bought Navy hats to wear with their Orange T-shirts and ponchos. They wanted to show that despite rooting for Syracuse, they appreciated the sacrifices being made by the Navy athletes and their classmates.
    The final seconds before the Navy players ran out on the field felt like the countdown to a Super Bowl or a Rolling Stones concert. The atmosphere, created in part by rowdy midshipmen like Travis, who was chanting “U-S-A!” and crowd surfing, made the Syracuse players and coaches feel like they were playing a road game instead of a neutral-site contest.
    Each Navy sports team had a Marine as its official liaison, and Gunnery Sergeant John Kob, who had spent time with Travis and the wrestling team, took his duty with the men’s lacrosse team very seriously. Kob had joined the Army in 1983 and served seven years as a soldier before joining the Marine Corps. The hard-nosed warrior had already deployed to Somalia before being assigned to the Naval Academy in 2001 and was now just months away from deploying to Iraq’s Babil province with 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Division, based out of California’s Camp Pendleton.
    Before each game Kob would lead the Midshipmen out onto the field carrying a massive American flag, which always excitedthe supportive home lacrosse crowds in Annapolis. But this day’s opening ceremony was even more special.
    As Brendan, his brothers, and their teammates stood in the tunnel leading out to the M & T Bank Stadium field listening to the thunderous applause above them, Kob, a bald, imposing figure whose face could easily appear in the dictionary next to the definition of “Marine,” dashed out onto the field with the gigantic American flag, waving it so vigorously that the pole nearly broke. From the lower bowl to the upper deck, a