I watched the flag pass by one day
It fluttered in the breeze
A young soldier 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?

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 of 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!!

Author Unknown