This Poem was cited by a Retired Navel Officer at Dad's Service at Tahoma National Cemetery while the flag was being folded.

This poem was written by Kelly Strong.
 

Kelly is now an active duty Coast Guard pilot living in Mobile and serving at the US Coast Guard Aviation Training Center. He has three kids and a great wife, Najwa, who just completed work at the Miami VA clinic as a physical therapist.

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 shot 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 everything was still;
I listened to the bugler play,
And felt a sudden chill;

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant “Amen”
When a flag had draped 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!

©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong

Last Ring Take a moment to remember our friends and associates who have passed.

Brian Feldman #3202, retired Seattle Police Motorcycle Officer passed away on May 19, 2015. He was 76 years of age upon passing. 

Brian was born in Glasgow, Montana but raised in Great Falls. He attended Great Falls High School. There, Brian developed his love of music. He became an accomplished banjo and guitar player. He could also sing – mostly western ballads. Later in life, with his banjo and guitar, he would accompany Charlie Pride.    In 1958, after graduating from high school Brian worked for the Burlington Northern Railroad for a little over ten years. During this time he moved to Seattle. As one of his western song’s lyrics claimed, he got tired of riding the rails. So in 1968 he applied to both the Bellevue and Seattle Police Departments. He passed both agencies’ testing and background processes. Seattle was in a mass recruiting drive for the summer unrest and hired Brian first on July 8th, 1969. After his three day orientation, he went to work at Wallingford working a car district and working the summer UO’s (Unusual Occurrences – translation: riots.) Even back then the Department had government-speak! Two of his partners were Boyd Brenton #2705 and next Ron Kuehner #2952. In 1970 Brian responded to a stick up call in Ballard. After a long vehicle chase into Georgetown, the suspect’s car broke down. The robber got out of his car, was turning while attempting to shoot Brian. But Brian got off the first shot: striking the suspect’s Gluteal Maximus. The suspect tried to escape so Brian ran after and caught the suspect. He told Brian, “You’d never caught me if I wasn’t wounded.” Brian, who had  a great sense of cowboy humor replied, “You’re right, it’s the 110 grain Super Vel handicap you are saddled with that allowed me to corral you.”    Brian worked the North Precinct until 1980, and then transferred to Traffic. He worked Enforcement for a year before moving onto Motors. He went through training with Dick Gagnon #3145. After training, he was assigned to Tom3’s (Paul Peterson #1721) Squad with Paul Giersch #2238, Paul Lewis #2288 and Harry Bailey #2930 (who later became C.O.P.) A couple of years later he joined the Motorcycle Drill Team. His traveling partner was Mike Burke #3140. During his early years in Traffic, Brian lived on a 50 ft. Trawler that he moored at the Lake Washington Marina. So guess where the Traffic guys took their post breaks during the hydro races – the accommodations and refreshments were great. They had their great digs until Brian sold the boat and moved to Magnolia Bluff.    Brian’s luck on his bike ran out in January 1989 when a motorist made a left turn. The car struck Brian’s motorcycle toward the front, causing it to spin 180 degrees, throwing him off. His head struck the curb hard. Fortunately, he was wearing his helmet; however the injury bothered him the rest of his career. Eleven months later while in a foot pursuit on the “Ave”, Brian slipped and fell on the concrete, this time injuring his rotator cuff. These injuries forced him back to a four-wheeler, this time in the DWI Squad for several months. In late 1991 Brian returned to Patrol, working the West Precinct, Queen Sector where his house just happened to be located.    His two injuries got worse over time, forcing Brian’s retirement in July 1994 after twenty-five years of service.    During retirement he stayed very active. He started a new occupation, repairing furniture. Brian continued to fish in Alaska with his old partner Ron Kuehner. During the football season, Glenn Scott #2918, a former Motorcycle Drill Teammate, and Brian rented a motorhome to follow the Huskies to the away games.    Brian is survived by his wife Cheryl; son, Scott; four daughters, Stacey, Kelly, Pandi and Shannon; twelve grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. 

Brian’s Celebration of Life will be on June 13, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. in Discovery Park’s Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, 5011 Bernie Whitebear Way, Seattle, WA  98199

“Suspect Held In Bank Heist”

Seattle Newspaper, 01/04/1978

     Seattle police arrested a 26-year-old bank robbery suspect yesterday afternoon less than 15 minutes after the robbery occurred in the Lake City area, police reported.

     According to the FBI, the Rainier National Bank, 12739 Lake City Way NE, was robbed by a lone gunman wearing a tan raincoat and a ski mask.  The suspect was reportedly arrested at N. 160th Street and Aurora Avenue N. by traffic officers John L. Flotten and Brian B. Feldman.

     The officers said a ski mask, an automatic pistol and a tan coat with a roll of about $2,000 in the pocket was recovered from the vehicle.  The suspect did not resist and no chase was involved.  He was booked into county jail.

“Bank-robbery suspect wounded, caught after wild chase”

By Peter Lewis, Times staff reporter

     A fleeing bank robber led police on a wild, 8-mile chase from Ballard to Boeing Field through downtown Seattle yesterday afternoon before he wrecked his disabled van.

      After running from the van, police said the 39-year-old suspect was shot in the back by a police officer when he ignored an order to halt.  The man last night was reported in serious condition with an abdominal would at Harborview Medical Center.

      Police recovered money and a handgun from the suspect’s van at the crash scene at the corner of Corson Avenue Southand South Eddy Street.

      The 2:30 p.m. holdup at the Ballard branch of Seattle-First National Bank, 2010 N.W. Market St., was the third in 1 ½ hour period yesterday.  Also robbed were the Beacon Hill branch of United Savings & Loan Association and the West Seattle branch of Metropolitan Federal Savings & Loan Association.

      During the course of the helter-skelter chase, at least eight privately owned parked or moving vehicles were struck by the suspect’s van, according to Joe Parks, Seattle Police spokesman.  In addition, several police vehicles were hit, Parks said.

      A spokesman for Sea-First said a man walked up to a teller and demanded money.  Although the robber indicated he had a gun, no weapon was shown.

      The man was said to be wearing a false goatee that matched his reddish hair.  He sped from the scene in a van.

      Two patrol officers working in the Queen Anne area saw the suspects van southbound on 15th Avenue West near West Garfield Street and gave chase.  The van continued southbound at high speeds and tore through the heart of downtown – at one point roaring the wrong way on one-way Fourth Avenue – striking several vehicles along the way.

      After getting on the freeway at James Street and hitting speeds in excess of 65 miles an hour, the van’s right rear tire, which had gone flat as the van sped through downtown, came off. When it turned off on the South Michigan Street exit ramp, the van’s right rear wheel came off, nearly striking pursuing police units.  The van ran a red light at Corson Avenue South and tried to run east on South Eddy Street, where it crashed into a station wagon and stopped at a stop sign.

      The suspect fled the van and ran east on South Eddy Street.  A traffic officer who pulled up behind the van called to the suspect to stop or he would shoot.  The suspect continued running and the officer fired a shot, which hit the man in the back.  The man continued to run eastbound, then collapsed in a parking lot, where he was arrested.

       The driver of the station wagon was Steve Lockitch, 37, of 9416 First Ave, N.E.

      Before the collision, Lockitch, a courier for the state Department of Transportation, remember hearing sirens and “a bunch of cops coming down Corson.  Then I saw this guy in a van weaving in and out.  I noticed he was sliding into me so I was going to put it into reverse and get the heck out of there.  He hit me before I could…”

      Unlike the account given by police, Lockitch recalled hearing “four or five” shots, though he said he didn’t see any gunfire.

      Parks said the shooting was within police guidelines for firing at a fleeing felon.  As is customary, however, the shooting will be reviewed, he added.

      Police today identified the officer who wounded the suspect as Brian Feldman.

       In the other robberies yesterday, a man wearing khaki-colored clothing entered the Beacon Hill branch of United Savings & Loan Association, 6428 California Ave. S.W., of an undisclosed amount of money.

       The man demanded money, displayed a handgun and held out a brown paper sack.  He fled on foot northbound down an alley.

       Through September, 1979, there were 140 bank robberies throughout the state, according to a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Through September of this year, 112 banks in Washington State were robbed, he said.