Originally published May 21, 2015

Like millions of Americans, I love spending time with my family, enjoying a delicious cheeseburger and watching baseball. I am looking forward to doing all three of these things on the last Monday of May, which for many of us, is simply a relaxing day off work.

For me, however, Memorial Day 2015 will be different because of a five-year experience that has permanently changed my life. In 2010, I left CNN to help tell the stories of America’s brave men and women in uniform and their families. While working on The Unknown Soldiers blog and a syndicated newspaper column, I met, interviewed and wrote about hundreds of U.S. troops, veterans and military families who made incredible sacrifices during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of these stories focused on young men or women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.

Memorial Day is not about baseball, cheeseburgers or time off work. It is about honoring those who sacrificed everything for the freedoms we are so privileged to enjoy.

Travis Manion and Brendan Looney were midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy when our country was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. As the Twin Towers fell, these two young men, who could have done anything they wanted in life, resolved to defend our nation’s security and cherished ideals. In the days, months and years after 9/11, thousands of Americans would join Travis and Brendan in following this dangerous, selfless path.

Before 1st Lt. Travis Manion left for his second deployment to Fallujah, Iraq, a family member joked about injuring Travis’ leg so he wouldn’t have to go back to one of the most dangerous places on earth. Travis, who became uncharacteristically serious with his brother-in-law, replied in part with five endearing words: “If not me, then who? …”

Less than five months later, Travis returned from Iraq in a flag-draped casket. As his loved ones would soon learn, Travis sacrificed his own life to protect his brothers in arms during a chaotic Apr. 29, 2007, firefight. Brendan, who was about to start training to become a U.S. Navy SEAL, agonized over his close friend’s death. Instead of leaving California for the funeral, however, Brendan did what he knew Travis would have wanted: He channeled every ounce of his energy, strength and grief into his Navy SEAL training. Sure enough, when his training concluded, Brendan was named the “Honor Man,” or top SEAL trainee, of his class.

Forty-eight hours after marrying the love of his life, Amy, LT Brendan Looney deployed to Fallujah, where his Naval Academy roommate had been killed less than two years earlier. He would subsequently deploy to Afghanistan, where fellow Navy SEALs marveled at Brendan’s thoughtfulness, dedication to duty and almost superhuman athletic prowess.

On Sept. 21, 2010, Brendan was killed in a helicopter crash along with eight fellow warriors. Almost immediately, the Navy SEAL’s devastated wife, Amy, asked to have her husband buried next to Travis. After an incredibly courageous series of decisions by the Looneys, Manions and U.S. military officials, Brendan and Travis were reunited in America’s most sacred place.

“Both were killed in action while I was Secretary of Defense, and I attended Brendan’s funeral at Arlington National Cemetery,” Robert M. Gates, who served Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush at the Pentagon, wrote. “I was told there of Travis being re-interred next to him so that these best friends and Naval Academy roommates might spend eternity together — a bond unbroken by death.”

At his son’s re-interment, retired U.S. Marine Col. Tom Manion said that Travis and Brendan are “warriors for freedom, brothers forever.” When Col. Manion and I decided to tell this story of friendship, family and war in a book, we quickly agreed that Brothers Forever should be the title. While Travis and Brendan weren’t related by blood, their bond, as Secretary Gates eloquently wrote, was unbreakable.

Even after spending the last five years helping to tell this story and others, I cannot begin to comprehend what our nation’s military community has sacrificed. What I can report, however, is that every single fallen hero and Gold Star family I’ve written about, along with thousands more like them, deserve our infinite appreciation and respect.

In between Monday’s barbecues and ballgames, I invite you to join me in telling the story of a fallen American hero to a family member or friend. After all, passing the heroic accounts of our nation’s fallen onto the next generation is a responsibility that rests squarely on our shoulders. Memorial Day, like no other day on the calendar, is the perfect time to embark on this important mission.

Nothing I have done or will do could ever compare to the selflessness, courage and patriotism of America’s fallen heroes. But when it comes to helping tell their stories, I will not relent. As 1st Lt. Travis Manion once said: “If not me, then who…”

Tom Sileo is a Senior Editor of The Stream. He is co-author of Brothers Forever: The Enduring Bond between a Marine and a Navy SEAL that Transcended their Ultimate Sacrifice.