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 mother's tears.
How many pilots planes shot down,
how many died at sea.
How many foxholes were soldiers graves,
NO FREEDOM JUST AIN'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 their wives.
Of fathers sons and husbands,
with interupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard,
at the bottom of the sea,
Of unmarked graves in Arlington,
No, FREEDOM JUST AIN'T FREE.