Army.ca's Fallen Comrades

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old



Freedom Is Not Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Airman 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 stood 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 fox holes were soldiers graves?
No freedom is not free.

I heard Taps sound one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugle play,
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times,
Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had covered a coffin,
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children
Of the mothers and the wives.
Of the fathers, sons, and husbands,
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard,
At the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves at Arlington.
No, Freedom Is Not Free!

- LCDR Kelly Strong, USCG

Viewed 534300 times.
       


» Download the iPhone/iPad Military Quotes app! «


Military Word Of The Day
LFRR
:
Land Force Reserve Restructure


» Download the iPhone/iPad Military Terms app! «


Today in Military History

March 29



1944:

RAF raid on Nuremberg: 95 out of 795 bombers lost


1945:

An acoustic torpedo from U-246 ends HMCS TEME'S part in the war when it blows most of her stern away killing four crewmembers in the process.


1973:

Last American Troops leave Vietnam




» Download the iPhone/iPad Military History app! «


Advertising