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themselves over the sides of the vessel. Hung over and seasick, they were throwing up while Brendan adjusted his fishing rod.
    â€œRemind me again who’s going to catch the biggest fish?” Brendan asked with a grin.
    Though Brendan was in the best condition that morning, he wasn’t really concerned about catching the biggest fish. Instead, he sat in the boat and shared laughs with his nauseated friends, making sure they rehydrated after vomiting for most of the morning.
    During a subsequent trip to Colorado Springs, the Hemminger brothers were with Travis when their wrestling coach challenged them to a grueling 12½-mile trail hike to the top of Pikes Peak. Naturally the athletes turned the climb into a fierce competition that Travis was determined to win.
    After the Hemmingers, Travis, and their teammates separated into respective groups of three, they didn’t encounter each other again until they were just steps from the mountain’s summit. Travis had indeed beaten the Hemmingers there, but the biggest member of his group, heavyweight wrestler Steve Kovach, was struggling to breathe after several hours of climbing through the thin Rocky Mountain air.
    Travis wanted to reach the gigantic mountain’s soaring peak first. But upon seeing his teammate’s condition, he set the competition aside.
    â€œI’m going to head back down with Stevie,” Travis said.
    By the time Travis had helped Kovach almost twelve miles down the Pikes Peak trail, it was clear to everyone what he was all about. Travis wanted to win, but like Brendan, his friends came first.
    During most of their time in Annapolis, Travis and Brendan shared another trait. As red-blooded American college kids, they wanted to meet as many beautiful women as possible. Travis was often popular with the ladies and would usually return from a nightat the bars with at least one new phone number. In one memorable case, his charm extended into the classroom, when Travis managed to put a female professor in a better mood during a disastrous presentation by one of his friends.
    As his buddy Myles McAllister stumbled through the assignment, Travis sat in the back of the classroom, laughing hysterically and smirking at the instructor. While smiling back at Travis and chuckling at his antics, her attention was diverted from McAllister’s cringe-inducing performance.
    â€œYou really saved my ass in there,” McAllister said as they laughed about the presentation after class.
    â€œI have to admit, that was the worst presentation I’ve ever seen,” a smiling Travis said while reassuring McAllister that he would probably receive a passing grade. “You’ll be fine. . . . I think that teacher’s got a crush on me.”
    Travis’s friend did in fact receive a passing grade from the teacher.
    Though Brendan had a similar effect on the women of Annapolis, he was usually more reserved in classroom and social settings. That all changed on Memorial Day weekend in 2003.
    With the country now at war in Iraq, on that Sunday Brendan, a Naval Academy junior, was driving back from the Jersey Shore, where he had met up with some high school buddies. He was heading to Baltimore to hang out with a large group of DeMatha friends at Fell’s Point, a quaint, popular area of waterfront shops, restaurants, and bars that bore a striking resemblance to Annapolis.
    As Brendan walked into The Greene Turtle sports bar to greet his buddies, his gaze wandered to a large table, where a gorgeous blonde was sitting with mutual friends near a wall covered with Baltimore Orioles and Ravens memorabilia. She was sipping a margarita, nodding and smiling as one of her friends told a funny story.
    Brendan couldn’t get over her big brown eyes. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
    â€œGo talk to her,” said Ryan Gillis, who had noticed Brendan staring.
    â€œNo way,” Brendan said. “She’s way too hot. . . .