Liberty and Life

They answered the call when the nation faced strife/ Willing to risk even life/ To preserve our freedom dear/ When the hand of oppression drew near/ But they did not make it back to hearth and home/ Falling on the march with Mark Clark toward Rome/ Or on Korea's contested hills or in Vietnam's rice paddies/ Never able to make it back to mothers and wives or sweethearts and daddies/ So whether they died last year in Afghanistan or in 1863 freeing the slaves/ Go forth and decorate their graves