Brendan John Looney - Lieutenant, United States Navy

U.S. Department of Defense

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 866-10
September 22, 2010

DOD Identifies Navy Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of four sailors who died in a helicopter crash September 21, 2010, during combat operations in the Zabul province, Afghanistan, while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Killed were:

Lieutenant (SEAL) Brendan J. Looney, 29, of Owings, Maryland, assigned to a West Coast-based SEAL Team.

Senior Chief Petty Officer David B. McLendon, 30, of Thomasville, Georgia, assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit.

Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL) Adam O. Smith, 26, of Hurland, Missouri, assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL Team.

Petty Officer 3rd Class (SEAL) Denis C. Miranda, 24, of Toms River, New Jersey, assigned to an East Coast-based SEAL Team.

Brendan Looney, Silver Spring native, killed in copter crash in Afghanistan
By Kafia A. Hosh
Courtesy of The Washington Post
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Brendan Looney, a Silver Spring native, was killed Tuesday while serving a military tour in Afghanistan. He was among nine service members killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan.

Looney, 29, was a Lieutenant who graduated in 2004 from the Naval Academy, where he played lacrosse alongside his brothers. He played football before switching to lacrosse his sophomore year.

Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller, superintendent of the academy, said in a statement that Looney was commissioned as an intelligence officer and later became a Navy SEAL. He lived in Owings, Maryland.

Looney “serves to remind us all of the commitment we make to our country as leaders in the Naval Service,” Miller said.

During his senior year at the academy, Looney and his two younger brothers, Steve and Bill, played on the school’s lacrosse team together.

“This year has been so fun, because it’s great to see my brothers play so well,” Looney said in a 2004 Washington Post article. “It’s great to see Billy score goals and see all that Steve does on the field. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

Looney was the protective older brother, both on and off the field. He would watch out for his brothers during games and checked up on his younger sister before school dances.

“When Brendan gets on the field as a rider, he finally gets to go after some of the defensemen who have been whacking at his brothers,” Navy Coach Richie Meade said in the Post article. “One of our assistants, Mark Goers, told me Brendan gets this look on his face like, ‘You’ve been beating on my brothers. Now I’m going to get you.’â??”

Looney, a 1999 graduate of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, was a remarkable athlete there too, playing baseball and football.

Twitter buzzed Wednesday with dozens of tweets from people paying their condolences to Looney’s family.

Looney’s family was scheduled to receive his body Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Meade accompanied the family to Dover, according to his daughter.

In addition to his brothers, Looney’s survivors include his wife, Amy, his parents, Kevin and Maureen Looney, and sisters Bridget, Erin and Kelly.

27 September 2010:

Services for Brendan Looney, a Navy lieutenant and former Naval Academy lacrosse player killed in Afghanistan last week, have been set for October 4, 2010, at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Silver Spring.

A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the church at 12319 New Hampshire Ave., with a 1 p.m. burial service at Arlington National Cemetery. His family will receive friends October 3 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the DeMatha Catholic High School Gym at 4313 Madison St. in Hyattsville.

Lieutenant Looney, 29, a Silver Spring native, was among nine U.S. military personnel killed in a helicopter crash Tuesday in southern Afghanistan. He was a Lieutenant in the Navy SEALs and a 2004 Naval Academy graduate.

He and his brothers, Billy, who lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Steve, of Coronado, California, were the subject of news articles when all three played for the Naval Academy lacrosse team.

“He paved the road for us,” said his sister, Bridget Looney, a lacrosse coach for Harvard University who lives in Boston. “Brendan was a remarkable guy. He was the oldest child in the family, and he showed us how it was to be done. He taught us what hard work meant. He showed us how not to give up on yourself.”

Lieutenant Looney lived in Owings in Southern Maryland and was a 1999 graduate of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, where he played varsity football and baseball.

“Brendan was a three-time letter winner in lacrosse, a history major, and a member of the 18th Company,” Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller said in a statement. “Lieutenant Looney will be sorely missed by his colleagues and his many other friends from the Naval Academy. His willingness to serve our nation during a time of conflict serves to remind us all of the commitment we make to our country as leaders in the Naval Service.

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Looney family, and our broader Naval Academy family; I would ask that you please keep them in your thoughts and prayers at this most difficult of times,” the superintendent said.

Lieutenant Looney’s sister said the family traveled Wednesday to Dover, Delaware, to receive his coffin. His body had not been released to the family, pending an autopsy, she said.

Also surviving are Lieutenant Looney’s wife of two years, the former Amy Hastings; his parents, Kevin and Maureen Looney of Silver Spring; and two other sisters, Erin Looney of Silver Spring and Kellie Looney of Cortland, New York.

The Associated Press reported that the crash was “the worst coalition helicopter crash in Afghanistan in four years.” The cause was not immediately clear. ” NATO said there were no reports of enemy fire at the time in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, where the crash took place,” AP reported.

27 September 2010
By Scott Kraus
Courtesy of Pennsylvania Morning Call

Travis Manion and Brendan Looney spent four years together at the Naval Academy learning to be sailors and officers and, by the time they graduated in 2004, had become the best of friends.

Now they will be reunited side by side in Arlington National Cemetery.

Manion, a Bucks County native and first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, was killed in Iraq in 2007. On September 21, 2010, Lieutenant Looney, a Navy SEAL and Manion’s Naval Academy roommate for three years, was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that also took the lives of eight other Americans.

Shortly after Manion’s death in 2007, his family laid him to rest at Calvary Cemetery in West Conshohocken, Montgomery County, a 30-minute drive from the family’s Doylestown Township home. Not long after that, they learned from his friends that Travis had expressed a desire to be buried in Arlington, said his father, Tom Manion.

Manion’s family was planning to have his remains moved to Arlington, but it was not easy to do, his father said. When they learned last week of Looney’s death, and that he had told his wife if he were killed he would like to be buried at Arlington with Travis, they set the wheels in motion.

Cemetery officials told the family they don’t save spaces, so if they wanted Travis to be buried next to his close friend, they’d need to move quickly, Manion said.

“It just seemed like if we were going to move him down there, moving him to be right next to his roommate would be a good thing,” Manion said. “It is hard to think about a good thing at a time like this, losing someone like Brendan. It just seemed like it made sense to make it happen.”

The two men, both good students, strong athletes and born leaders, shared a love of family and great sense of humor that created a strong bond, Manion said. He said Looney’s wife, Amy, told him that before his death, her husband had said he kept three things with him at all times while fighting in Afghanistan: his watch, their wedding ring and a bracelet honoring his fallen friend Travis.

“They used to call themselves brothers from a different mother,” Manion said. “Anytime they were together they were always having a good time … and a lot of laughs and were a lot of fun being around. That is my lasting memory of the two of them when they got together.”

Looney, a star lacrosse player from Owings, Maryland, was killed during a special operation in southern Afghanistan’s Zabol province. He was 29. Manion, 26, was killed on April 29, 2007, by a sniper in Al Anbar province, Iraq.

Over the years, the two men’s friendship brought their families together, Manion said. When Looney’s parents went to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to retrieve their son’s body, they asked the Manions to accompany them.

Manion will be buried in Arlington on Friday. Looney will be buried next to him three days later.

“If you are going to be laid to rest, I know he wanted to be in Arlington,” said Manion, who has said his son’s service inspired him to run for Congress in 2008. “And to be next to Brendan, his brother-in-arms and his great friend.…I can’t help but think that if this had to happen, he has to be sort of happy that he is beside his buddy Brendan.”

The Looneys have asked mourners to make donations to the Travis Manion Foundation, which assists severely wounded veterans and the families of fallen soldiers, in lieu of sending flowers, said foundation spokesman.

LOONEY, BRENDAN JOHN

LT US NAVY
DATE OF BIRTH: 02/24/1981
DATE OF DEATH: 09/21/2010
BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 9180
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard

Brendan John Looney – Lieutenant, United States Navy

U.S. Department of Defense

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