I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
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A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
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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.
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I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?
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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,"
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When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.
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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
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Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
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Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops
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