To the Editor:



Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans, both a federal holiday and a state holiday. In all states it is usually observed on Nov. 11.

It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on Nov. 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the Germans signing of the armistice.

In 1953, an Emporia, Kan., a shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. With the help of then U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954. Congress amended the act on Nov. 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

I believe the following poem tells it like it is:

FREEDOM IS NOT 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,

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.

— Copyright 1981 By KellyStrong@aol.com

Enjoy your freedom and God Bless our troops.

GEORGE MASON,

Ottawa