Veteran's Quotes:
What does freedom mean to you?
Freedom is earned every day through discipline and responsibility. Build something bigger than yourself, or you’ll become a prisoner to the life you choose.
Cpl. Milo Schoonmaker
United States Marine Corps, Iraq, Task Force Tarawa
Freedom means honoring the sacrifices of those who stood beside me, those who didn’t make it home, and carrying forward the responsibility to protect the values they gave everything for.
1stSgt Luis Acosta
U.S. Marine Corps, Iraq and Afghanistan
Freedom is having the strength to understand that not everything is in your control. Yet, things in our control, we need to act upon. Freedom is not a passive status but an active one.
SrA Adam Michaud
U.S. Air Force, South Korea and Italy
Freedom is the privilege to exercise power over our hopes, dreams, and personal choices. Freedom affords us that power over our choices, but liberty is ultimately what makes us uniquely American.
Maj. John Cochise Crosby Jr.
U.S. Army, Iraq and Kosovo
Freedom is something you fight for and stand by!
SPC Trinidad Malone
Army National Guard, Afghanistan
To possess freedom is to have the ability to exercise those unalienable rights endowed to us by God, which are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. True freedom can only be found within institutions and individual lives that rightly recognize the one true God from which those rights are obtained.
MSgt Scott Pettus
U.S. Marine Corps, Iraq and Afghanistan
I am proud of the flag of the United States of America. When I see someone wearing the stars on the left, I thank them.
Staff Sgt. Manuel Moreno
U.S. Army, Vietnam
Freedom, to me, is the ability to be authentic and to pursue goals that will provide better opportunities for my family and somehow have a positive impact on others. It’s the opportunity to openly praise and pray to a God who sacrificed his only Son to die for my sins, fearing nothing.
PO3 Erik Smithson
U.S. Navy, USS George Washington (CVN-73)
Freedom to choose.
Lt. Col. Clifton “Clif” Perkins
Army Air Corps, WWII, China
Freedom means I can go and do the things I want to do, to be able to talk and learn about anything.
SPC Robert Willhelm
U.S. Army Signal Corps, Korea and Ft. Bliss, TX
Freedom is a synonym for individual liberty, which is the ethos of our country’s founding. Individual Liberty is the notion of each citizen being sovereign and supreme to all government entities.
1LT L. Scott Taylor
U.S. Army Reserve, Military Intelligence
Freedom is the ability to live with purpose and conviction, strengthened by choice, and preserved through sacrifice.
DT3 Garrett Woods
U.S. Navy, USS Juneau (LPD-10)
The amendments to the Constitution—the freedom of speech, religion, and the right to vote—are often overlooked. Freedom allows you to fail, so you can go out and take risks. With freedom comes responsibility.
1 LT Peyton Yates
U.S. Army, VietnamArticle originally published in Focus on Artesia 2026 Summer edition.
