In honor of our soldiers ! ! !

Freedom Isn't Free

by--LCDR Kelly Strong, USCG-1981

I watched the flag pass by one day, It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Service man 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 mother's tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down? How many died at sea

How many foxholes were soldier's 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.

----Thanks to all those soldiers who have fought and given their lives to pay the price for my freedom. Thanks grandpa! We truly are the greatest nation because of those who sacrificed so much. Just like Moroni going into battle with a torn flag upon a stick--our soldiers carry that same spirit and message---Liberty and Freedom.