U.S. Marine LCpl. Daryl Crookston, 19, holds onto his brother Nathan, 14, who became emotional as h

U.S. Marine LCpl. Daryl Crookston, 19, holds onto his brother Nathan, 14, who became emotional as he began to realize it would be sereral months before he was to see his brother again once he shipped off for his first deployment to Afghanistan. The close–knit family stopped at a restaurant to spend the last possible minutes together before dropping him off to join the rest of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, which later boarded buses to meet the plane that would fly them overseas. Crookston is the first of three friends the Times has been following since high school to deploy after graduating from boot camp. (Photo by Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)