Armed Forces Day 2019: We Are Only Free Because Of The Brave

Afghanistan-Iraq War Memorial
Logan, Ohio

Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands,

And of armed men the hum;

Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered

Round the quick alarming drum,-

Saying, "Come, Freemen come!

Ere your heritage be wasted,"

said the quick alarming drum.

To Make Men Free

(1943)

Norman Rockwell

(1894-1978)

Prolific American artist

"Let me of my heart take counsel:

War is not of life the sum;

Who shall stay and reap the harvest

When the autumn days shall come?

But the drum

Echoed, "Come!

Death shall reap the harvest,"

said the solemn-sounding drum.

Desert Storm War Memorial
Fort Stewart, Georgia

"But when won the coming battle,

What of profit springs therefrom?

What if conquest, subjugation,

Even greater ills become?"

But the drum

Answered, "Come!

You must do the sum to prove it,"

said the Yankee-answering drum.

Korean War Memorial
Washington DC

"What if, 'mid the cannons' thunder,

Whistling shot and bursting bomb,

When my brothers fall around me,

Should my heart grow cold and numb?"

But the drum

Answered, "Come!

Better there in death united than in 

life a recreant-Come!"

Vietnam War Memorial Wall
Washington DC

"No one has greater love than to lay down

their own life for their friends."

John 15:13

To the men and women of the United States Armed Forces,

past and present, who through their sacrifice and service to

this nation have given me my freedom, I dedicate this post.

 May God Bless You All.

"The Reveille"

Bret Harte

(1836-1902)

American poet and writer, best known for

his colorful tales of miners, gamblers, and other

romantic figures in the bold and bawdy days

of the California Gold Rush.