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Military Salute Project :: Reference Desk :: Military and Veterans Tributes :: Freedom Isn't Free Author Topic: Freedom Isn't Free (Read 2,268 times) Moderator Administrator member is offline Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 255 Location: Woodbury, MN Freedom Isn't Free « Thread Started on Jun 22, 2005, 3:13pm » By: Cadet Major Kelly Strong, USAF JROTC Homestead Senior High - Homestead, Florida - 1988 I watched the flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the breeze. A young Marine saluted it, And then he stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform So young, so tall, so proud, With hair cut square and eyes alert He'd stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him Had fallen through the years. How many died on foreign soil? How many mothers' tears? How many pilots' planes shot down? How many died at sea? How many foxholes were soldiers' graves? No, freedom isn't free. I heard the sound of taps one night, When everything was still I listened to the bugler play And felt a sudden chill. I wondered just how many times That taps had meant "Amen," When a flag had draped a coffin Of a brother or a friend. I thought of all the children, Of the mothers and the wives, Of fathers, sons and husbands With interrupted lives. I thought about a graveyard At the bottom of the sea Of unmarked graves in Arlington. No, freedom isn't free. « Last Edit: Jul 25, 2006, 11:25am by Moderator » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» Reference Desk--------------------- The Flag of the United States of America- Military and Veterans Protocol- Military and Veterans Tributes- Roll Call of Minnesota's Fallen- Military and Veterans Memorials in Minnesota- National and State Cemeteries in Minnesota- The Library--------------------» About Us--------------------- History of the Military Salute Project- Legal and Contact information