Have you ever had a friend that you were very close to? If you have, it can be something special. It gives you someone to love like family, someone to trust, and just a feeling that someone is always there. It gives you a buddy and a partner in crime. Someone that you can do things with, tell things, and not have to worry about a thing, It is a special feeling. So, here's a story about that.

I once knew a couple of boys that were the best of friends, their names were Taylor and Howard. They had been friends since the beginning of time. Their mothers were friends, so they had always been around one another. They grew up together, went to school together and even played sports with one another. They had always been good friends!

These two men were rather larger. They both had huge muscles and were around six feet tall. Both of them lifted weights, ran distance, and were in good shape all together. They were always laughing and goofing off until one day a serious topic came up. Howard asked Taylor what he was doing after school, seeing how it was their senior year and they were eighteen. "I don't know," said Taylor. Howard said "you need to figure it out." "Nah, it'll be alright." Said Taylor. Then the topic left and they never really talked about it again.

Later that year, about the end of school Howard has signed with the marines to become a Navy Seal. "Lets go together!" Said Taylor. And they did! The buddies signed up for a buddy system. It is a program where you go through training, and deployment with your friend. Come June, both of the men excited to serve their country. Headed off for basic training!

After another three months, they were off to the Navy Seal school. They went through it together of course with the buddy system. Doing all the cool training stuff army people get to do. Jumping out of airplanes, swimming, shooting stuff, and all of that. Just imagine doing all of that with your best friend. Finally, at the end of their eight-month journey, they graduated basic training together and now Navy seal school. They were readily deployed Navy seals.

Another six or so months went by as they wait around in their hometown together doing odd jobs. They both get a call one day, they are being deployed! They are headed to Afghanistan to fight ISIS. They had seventy-two hours to pack their bags and catch a plane. They would be on tour for five months. Their destination was a small abandon town that people were trying to start living in. They were ISIS members and they were not allowed to be there!

As they arrived they got taken into the city by Humvees and got even happier! The boys were pursuing their dreams. They got set up at their base and shown the basics, told that in 48 hours they would leave for their first shift in the field. The would be doing what they call infantry, which is entering a structure and clearing it. They will make sure that there is nothing and no one bad in the building.  The men got excited as they rested for the next couple days. They would be doing this shift at night, so they got very rested up and changed their sleeping habits a little bit.

The first day that they went to battle things got ugly really quick! As they went into the village and started to clear houses one by one, everything started okay. Shortly after, something bad happened. They breach a door and BOOM Taylor is taken hostage by people with cloth on their head. By the time the rest of the house was cleared and things settled down Howard noticed something. His best friend was gone. This was very, very, very bad.

Instantly they started to go on a search. The good news is all the men's watches has GPS trackers on them. They had to head back to the base to get a tracker for locations. When they got that they noticed he was in a large gated building. A group of five men, including Howard start the search. They get to the place and begin to breach the gate. As they get into the building they clear the house room by room, only finding a few people. As they find Taylor and rescue him, he was bumped and banged up a bit from the torture, but he was free.

As the best friends unite again, all the men head back to the base. They got shipped back home three months later with not much excitement. Their stay kind of got boring. Taylor thanked Howard and all the other men for saving him. It truly is nice having someone you know that you can always rely on. They are best friends still to this day, and all the men and women on that deployment are home living happy safely and happily!