Never forgottenLiberty Unites ยท January 24, 2005
Joseph W. Stevens of Sacramento, Calif. is remembered in the Liberty Unites archive.
A LIFE REMEMBERED
Army Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Stevens was killed Jan. 24 when his Bradley fighting vehicle overturned in Mohammed Sacran, Iraq. Four other soldiers were also
PRAYERS & CONDOLENCES
All 1 messages preserved from the historic Liberty Unites archive are printed in this static page.
Freedom Isn't Free
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?
How many Pilots' planes shot down?
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!!
...Cadet Major Kelly Strong
Air Force Junior ROTC
Legacy Liberty Unites visitor