Freedom is not Free!

My tribute to the many that give of their lives yesterday, today and tomorrow, so that we can continue to live free.

Happy Memorial Day!

Freedom Is Not Free

- 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,

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.

Thank you:

SFC. Michael C. Johnson - Active Duty Army - Husband

Henry M. Durant - WWII Vet - Maternal Grandfather

Francis M. Hill - WWII Vet - Paternal Grandfather

Stephen S. Harold - Vietnam Vet - Father in Law

SGT. Dillon Bomgardner - Active Duty Army National Guard - Brother in law

AMERICA'S WARS
Revolutionary War- 1775-1784
War of 1812
Mexican-American War- 1846-1848
Civil War- 1861-1865
Spanish American War- 1898-1902
World War I- 1917-1918
World War II- 1941-1945
Korean War- 1950-1953
Vietnam War- 1964-1975
Persian Gulf War I- 1990-1991
Persian Gulf War II (Iraq)- 2003-


(Memorial Day began in the United States on May 30, 1868, after the Civil War had ended. Flowers were put on the graves of both sides, in order to help heal the nation. It was later expanded to include all men and women who had died in America's wars.)

(All pictures were taken at the Fort Sam Houston, Veterans Cemetery 2009)