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Freedom is not FREE – By Major Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day, it fluttered in the breeze,
a young man in uniform saluted it & 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 the 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 is not
free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night, when everything
was still. I listened to the bugler play & 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 mothers’ and the wives.
Of fathers, sons & 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.

Thank you, EXcel, for posting this today, it about says it all.

So many people in America, DO NOT EVEN APPRECIATE WHAT THEIR FREEDOM COST OTHERS.
and they gave those sacrifices so willingly for us.

Its a Beautiful day here, and I soooo appreciate !!!!
CArol

Today is a day of Thanksgiving for me. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a loved one to war.
I will be happy when my son returns next March.

What many people don't realize is that the day before, Nov. 10th, is the birthday of the Marine Corps. I was having dinner at Creekside Restaurant when a gentleman stood and made a speech inviting everyone to join his table for birthday cake. He was a Marine from the Vietnam War era and he was taking a young Marine captain to dinner. The captain was about to depart for his 2nd tour in Afghanistan. I accepted the cake and shook their hands but the sight of his small children brought me to tears and I had to leave. Still it was nice that this jarhead shared his cake with an old yeoman 2nd class. Semper Fi!!