Freedom Is Not Free 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 about 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, 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 is not free. ~ ~ ~ Kelly Strong ***

A nice person, Jennifer, left a message in one of my guestbooks that the person who wrote this was Kelly Strong.. not as I had listed before, as Kelly Armstrong..  I have checked out the internet and found 3 different years in which this poem was written, 1981, 1982 and 1988. So.... whichever year it was written. I guess the year is not totally important, as is the right name. So THANKS to Cadet Major Kelly Strong *** Air Force Junior ROTC - Homestead Senior High School Homestead FL .     And thanks also to Jennifer to letting me know who really was the author of this great poem!