Celebrate Independence Day

[baldeagle]

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 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

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 isn't free .

Enjoy Your Freedom, Enjoy the Fourth
& God Bless Our Troops

[joe817]

I got goosebumps when I read that. Thanks for sharing baldeagle! And God Bless the U.S.A.!

[A-R]

Did you write that?

[cougartex]

[baldeagle]

Did you write that?

No, I did not. It was written by Kelly Strong, a Commander in the Coast Guard, when he was an 18-year-old ROTC cadet. He wrote it to honor his father, a Marine who served two tours in Vietnam. http://mommylife.net/archives/2010/06/f ... s_not.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DONT TREAD ON ME]

GREAT POST!!!





"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank
God that such men lived."
- General George S. Patton, Jr