God Bless Our Troops

          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 & God Bless Our Troops