Chaplains Corner

Ragged Old Flag

I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench, an old man was sitting there
I said “Your old court house is kind of run down”
He said “Naw, it’ll do for our little town”
I said “Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit”
And that’s a ragged old flag you got hanging on it
He said “Have a seat”, and I sat down
“Is this the first time you’ve been to our little town?”
I said “I think it is”
He said “I don’t like to brag, but we’re kind of proud of
That Ragged Old Flag
You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware
And It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it
Writing Say Can You See
It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson
Tugging at its seams
And It almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag
But she waved on though
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg
And the south wind blew hard on
That Ragged Old Flag
On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp, and low, a time or two
She was in Korea, Vietnam, She went where she was sent
By her Uncle Sam
She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
And now they’ve about quit waving back here at home
In her own good land here She’s been abused
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied an’ refused
And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout out the land
And she’s getting thread bare, and she’s wearing thin
But she’s in good shape, for the shape she’s in
Because she’s been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more”

So we raise her up every morning
And we bring her down slow every night
We don’t let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right
On second thought
I do like to brag
Because I’m mighty proud of
That Ragged Old Flag

The job is never complete. Freedom is not free. It must be earned again in each generation.

God bless those that have gone before and those that are presently serving in our armed forces.