Freedom is not Free

Freedom is not Free

by Cadet Major Kelly Strong

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 mother's tears? 

How many pilots' planes shot down? 

How many died at sea? 

How many foxholes were soldier’s graves? 

No, freedom is not 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 IS NOT FREE