I watched a flag pass by today
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 sounds of taps last night
when everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered 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
and 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.
(Author unknown)
On this Fourth of July, Americans celebrate your freedom, but please give a thought to all the men and women who served and continue to serve, and especially those who gave all. God bless them.
Semper Fi!