Independence Day!

We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have,
of which we should be eternally grateful.

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Soldier saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

Looking 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.

Hearing 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

and

God Bless Our Troops.​

 

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