Freedom Is Not Free

I watched the flag pass by one day,
it fluttered in the breeze,
A young man in uniform 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 mother's tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom is not free.

Cadet Major Kelly Strong