Freedom Is Not Free

I Watched A Flag Pass By – author unknown

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.

Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.

darthcrUSAderworldtour07 says:

May 25, 2008 at 6:30 am

…thanks to you and your Theodores World Alliance, every day is Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day! God bless America now more than ever!!

Les says:

May 25, 2008 at 9:37 am

The many freedoms that all citizens enjoy, including the freedom to vote and freedom of speech, are more than enough reasons for everyone to always be proud of their country. It may not be perfect, but we have all of the freedoms necessary to make it better.
God bless America! And, God bless all the men and women in our military who we remember and honor this Memorial Day who paid the ultimate price and lost their lives protecting the freedoms of all the citizens of the United States.
The author of this poem is Kelly Strong according to the International War Veterans’ Poetry Archives at:
http://iwvpa.net/strongk/
“This poem is important to Kelly because he wrote it as a high school senior (JROTC cadet) at Homestead High, Homestead, FL. in 1981. It is a tribute to his father, a career marine who served two tours in Viet Nam.”
“When he finds others trying to take credit for the authorship of the poem, Kelly sees it as a dishonor to the man who inspired the poem, his Dad.”
“Kelly is now an active duty Coast Guard pilot living in Mobile and serving at the US Coast Guard Aviation Training Center. He has three kids and a great wife, Najwa, who just completed work at the Miami VA clinic as a physical therapist.”
Another website with the poem includes:
Copyright 1981 by CDR Kelly Strong, USCG (Ret).

Lynn says:

May 25, 2008 at 10:50 am

This is truly a wonderful poem.
Thank you to the boy who wrote it.
No, Freedom isn’t free. But it is our
soldiers who paid the price for our freedom.
They did the dirty work and should be honored
as the heroes they are.