Two New Mexico brothers were among those in attendance Thursday night at the State of the Union address.

John and Cheston Bailon are Marines who are still living and working in New Mexico, and they shared the purpose of their trip with KOB 4.

They wanted to support one of their best friends, Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego, who invited them, and they wanted to represent New Mexico.

Their friendship with Rep. Gallego goes back about 20 years.

“Not much has changed actually. He’s actually a real person,” Cheston said.

The brothers are Native American Marines from the Navajo Nation and are now working at Sandia National Labs.  They downplayed their résumé when describing how they’re blending in in Washington D.C.

“We’re like the Native Forest Gumps. We just stand in places and say, ‘Alright, cool,’” John said.

They really are New Mexico guys.

“We love New Mexico. We love the Navajo Nation,” John said. “Our family, as we say, has been there for many moons.”

They are also in the nation’s capital to honor the friends they’ve lost.

“Live up to that unspoken commitment to our friends that we’re going to do our best in life,” John said.

Those tragedies happened in a war overseas in 2005.

“We’re very, very honored to be here. It’s almost 20 years since we deployed to Iraq.

We’re here to share this moment. Very special,” John said.

“We were very young men in the war. When I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, I didn’t have any friends. They were my first friends,” Rep. Gallego said.

They all fought together in Iraq. Their unit, based in Albuquerque, was green, experiencing combat for the first time.

“It was special in that way. We had growing pains together. We lost good friends on that deployment. It was very organic in that way,” John said.

Until they got back, they said didn’t realize how much they had gone through.

“Sharing those stories post-deployment has really built a closer bond between us. I think that’s the stepping stone to the more intimate relationship we have,” Cheston said.

The brothers said they speak with the congressman all the time, sometimes about issues affecting Native American communities.

“Cheston and John are consistently talking to me about things that are important to them, especially when it comes to Native American entrepreneurship and taking care of the Navajo Nation and other Native American and tribal governments,” Rep. Gallego said.