A few years ago, I was in my car listening to a radio call-in talk show and the topic of the conversation was that of whether it was proper for people to burn the American flag in protest or if it was a protected individual freedom. During the talk show, someone called in and said they didn’t understand what all the controversy was about over “just a piece of cloth.” The image struck me immediately of the Marines on Iwo Jima with their faces down in the volcanic ash and looking up at Mount Suribachi to see the flag being raised. Surely, they didn’t consider it to be just a piece of cloth.
When I arrived home that evening, I put the following thoughts down on paper and I believe that expresses my beliefs and my feelings of who I am and the love that I have for this country. I entitled it:
I was with Colonel Parker and the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord
To hear “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World’” that began the American Revolution.
I was with General Washington when he crossed the Delaware
and suffered with his men in the harsh winter at Valley Forge.
I was with Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys at Ticonderoga
And with Washington, Hancock, and Marquis de Lafayette to accept
Surrender terms at Yorktown with the British playing that old European tune
“The World Turned Upside Down”
I was with Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte at the Battle of New Orleans in 1812
I was with Lee and Longstreet and all the Boys in Gray at Gettysburg.
And I was with all the Boys in Blue with General Mead and Colonel Chamberlain
on Little Round Top.
I was with Grant in the Wilderness and at Vicksburg.
I was with both the Blue and Gray whom our country was healed at Appomattox.
I was with Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders on San Juan Hill
and with Admiral Dewey and the Great White Fleet in Manila Bay.
I was with the Dough Boys in World War I, “War to End All Wars.”
And I now Lie in Flanders Field
I was with Admiral Isaac Kidd aboard the ARIZONA that fateful Sunday morning in 1941.
I was with the infantry that landed on beaches so far away named
Omaha, Juno, Utah, Sword and Gold.
I was with General Wainwrite on Corriegador.
I was with Admiral Fletcher in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
I was aboard the ENTERPRISE, HORNET, and YORKTOWN at Midway.
I fought at Kwajalein, the Battle of Leyete Gulf, at bloody Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima
And served on destroyers on picket duty off Okinawa.
I flew Saber jets in MIG Alley in North Korea and I was with the Marines at Chosin Reservoir.
I was with the Navy at Inchon Harbor and fought on hills called
Bloody, Heartbreak, Old Baldy and Porkchop.
I flew bombing missions over Hanoi and was on Rat patrol in the Mekong Delta.
I was with the Navy on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf.
I flew night missions over Baghdad and was with the battalions in Desert Storm.
Freedom is not free. It has a price and it has been paid many times by many people.
I am a product of my past.
I am what you have made me.
I am an American and I am free.
H. Maury Drummond
Executive Director, USS KIDD (DD661)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Past President, Historical Naval Ships Assoc.
Presentation at Tin Can Sailors Association Banquet at the annual conference in
Las Vegas, Nevada February 6, 1996
“THE HERITAGE OF FREEDOM”