What comes to your mind when you think about the 4th of July? For most of us it’s fireworks, parades, a day off work and backyard barbecues. But Freedom is not free. The origins of our country began with war. It was inspired by the greater good of obtaining our freedom from Great Britan. The Fourth of July has been celebrated by public readings of the Declaration of Independence from the courthouse steps ever since. But not everyone does this still today, so in case nobody’s reading it at your court house, I will read the Declaration of Independence to you or you can play this at your own courthouse. In this special Independence Day edition of Home Front, we start by talking with a Vietnam Veteran and then stay with us for the Declaration.

Colonel Quincy Collins was Born on the 4th of July in 1931, He graduated from the Citidel and became a flight commander with the Air Force as a Second Lieutanant. He was shot down over Vietnam which left him as a prisoner of war for the next 7 1/2 years and provides us with a perspective on freedom and war from one who was on the inside.