Thanksgiving...a day late!

A week or so ago I received a gift from the 591st Engineer Co. Veterans Association for the website I've kept up for them. It was completely unexpected and so very nice of them.

With winter just around the corner I've really been worried about whether or not I'll be able to keep up with shoveling snow out of the driveway. Well, I don't have to worry about that now. I used the gift the Veterans sent to contract someone locally to come and keep the driveway plowed. They'll even shovel the sidewalk and de-ice it if necessary.

I'm so excited, so grateful and so happy that I don't have to worry about having a heart attack in 20 degree weather. I'm also not dreading the snow as much.

Thank-you 591st! Love yas and Welcome Home!

Freedom Isn't Free

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.

Author ~ Kelly Strong