Old soldiers really do fade away.

Thursday, May 17, 2001

Old soldiers really do fade away.

There are no World War I veterans alive today and World War II veterans are growing older and their numbers fewer.

Korean War veterans will soon join them and the Vietnam War veterans are no longer so far removed in age from the others.

Time stops for no one.

The decision to make veterans grand marshals of this year’s SPAMTOWN USA Festival parade is a smart one.

Representatives from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, men and women, will lead the parade through Austin on Independence Day.

Even this year’s SPAMTOWN USA Festival button is a "keeper." It has the stars and stripes in red, white and blue. There is more patriotism and less commercialism on the button than ever before.

In an America increasingly inundated with gimmickry, hype and hysteria, it’s good to see Austin’s fine celebration will put the real and only reasons to celebrate Independence Day first.

But first, there is Memorial Day, that somber weekend at the end of May when we remember veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

The Memorial Day weekend is an example of all that is good about America. Families line the streets to watch parades. Families visit cemeteries to see the flags waving from their loved ones’ graves. Families share the day.

I like to get as wild and crazy as the next fool and each year I look forward to all the fine celebrations throughout Mower County, but it’s nice to start the summer with Memorial Day. It brings balance to one’s life to contemplate all the lives lost from all the wars that allowed our country to be the singular special experience it is.

Adams American Legion Post No. 146 will hold a flag disposal ceremony again. It’s not a showy affair, but a necessary one. Old Glory deserves to be put to rest with respect, too.

Lyle American Legion Post No. 105 will criss-cross the countryside visiting cemeteries and rendering honors to the veterans buried there.

Just like Legion Posts and Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts, too, the veterans, a year older, a few pounds heavier and breathing more deeply will do their best to carry on the torch of those who went before them.

And everywhere veterans go, there are auxiliaries marching along side. These women are not to be ignored either. Take for instance, Lois Kaput.

Whenever the Austin Daily Herald’s motor route delivery man missed George and Lois Kaput, George would call me at home and in no uncertain terms make it clear to me he wanted his Herald.

More than one Sunday morning, I drove to the Kaput residence near London with a Sunday paper and after awhile we struck up a friendship. He liked to talk and I was willing to listen.

Mr. Kaput is gone now and so is his daughter, Sharon, and only their wife and mother, Lois is alive.

Mrs. Kaput hasn’t called to have me deliver the Herald on Sunday mornings, but she knows her American history well. Recently, she sent me a poem entitled "Freedom is not free."

It reads:

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 show down? How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves? No, freedom is not free.

I heard the sound of taps one night, when everyone was still.

I listened to the bugler play, and felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times, that taps had mean ‘Amen.’

When a flag had covered 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 is not free.

Before we all go wild this summer, it’s good that Memorial Day is coming to remind us of the reasons this country is so darn popular.

And if you feel a chill when they play "Taps" at the cemetery, you can feel good about being an American.

Lee Bonorden’s column appears Thursdays. Call him at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.