~*~God Bless The U.S.A.~*~

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 wondered how many men like him -
Have fallen through the years
How many died on foreign soil -
How many Mothers' tears

How many pilot's 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 -
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 Fathers, Sons, and Husbands -
With interrupted lives

And I thought about the graveyard -
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington -
No, Freedom is not Free."

Poem written in 1981 by
AFJROTC Cadet Kelly Strong
of Homestead High School, Florida.