Freedom Isn't Free

On this Memorial Day, let us take a few moments to honor the noble sacrifice of all the brave servicemen and women who have given their lives for our country. Whether on a beach in Normandy, an island in the Pacific, a hill in Pennsylvania, the Lexington green, or so many other places, they died so that the rest of us could live in freedom. May God have mercy on their souls and may we Americans truly appreciate their sacrifice.

No, Freedom Isn't Free

by Cdr. Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret.)

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.