Thanks to all Veterans

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze

A young soldier 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 foxholes, soldiers' graves?

And remembered then,

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, sister, 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.

Cadet Major Kelly Strong

Air Force Junior ROTC