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 is not 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!!

  God Bless America