The dining facility here holds probably 1000-2000 people. There are multiple cafeteria style lines to get food from. There are tables lined up that hold about eight people each and there are TVs that are set up in the corners of the rooms usually showing news or movies on Air Force Network. The TVs are largely ignored except by those who are close to them. However, on this night it was different. After I had picked up my food I noticed that almost everyone in the facility was watching the TV. It was relatively silent so the dialogue could be heard even from far away. And many like me stopped where they were to watch what was on.

So what show had quieted the room. It was Braveheart. The specific scene that had everyone transfixed on the TV was when at the end of the movie he is being tortured. The entire crowd watching him being tortured is begging for him to ask for mercy. I think probably almost everyone in the room new this movie and new what was coming next. But we all wanted to hear it. We all wanted to see this man who was being tortured not beg for mercy but to maintain his dignity and keep faith with all those who had died before him.

So what were his last words going to be? What was he going to use his last breath to utter. What was so significant to him that he would allow it to take him to an excruciatingly painful death.

The answer came in his last word. Wallace gathered his strength and then with a yell that echoed through the mountains he bellowed: FREEDOM

We celebrate freedom at home. We are defending it here.

Happy Fourth of July!