By BOB FORD

bford@tnonline.comO say can you see by the dawn's early light.Ever since growing up on military bases up and down the East Coast these words have had a certain effect on me.I can still remember evenings as a child of 4 or 5 years old playing with my friends in the playground of Fort Fisher Air Force base in North Carolina and hearing the bugle blare letting us know that the "Lowering of the Colors" was about to begin and the "Star Spangled Banner" would be playing. We would all stop, face the flag and be quiet.Even now, as an adult, I will stand in respect when our country's national anthem is played. As a photojournalist who shoots a lot of sports, I hear the "Star Spangled Banner" quite often. If I'm in a situation where I must shoot photos during the anthem, I will do it as quickly and inconspicuously as possible.A lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, wrote the anthem in 1814 after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry, in the Baltimore harbor. Some say that the anthem, which is sung to the melody of another song, "The Anacreontic Song," was originally written as a poem and later set to music. Others believe Key had the tune in mind the entire time he was composing it.Going from school-to-school for sporting events you get to see the entire gamut of singers, and some of them give me chills and literally make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Some, not so much.It's my opinion that this is not a song to "make your own," and it is most certainly not a country or rock and roll song. It's an ode and stands for so much to so many.Never has the "Star Spangled Banner" stirred such emotion as when I recently stood on the top of a set of bleachers in Great Lakes, Illinois, watching my son, Thomas, snap to attention as our country's national anthem played during his graduation from Navy boot camp.My wife, mother, mother-in-law and I made the drive out to the Recruit Training Command, just north of Chicago, for the graduation ceremony. The grueling 13-hour drive was topped off by a trip through the center of the third largest city in the country in the middle of rush hour traffic. The sight of my son bounding up the bleachers to hug his mother on her birthday made it worth every minute.We got to spend a few hours with him after the ceremony and then he was off to the airport for his trip to the next stage of his new career, with schooling in Pensacola, Florida. He's still far away, but at least we now have access to him through phone calls, emails and Facebook.I'm sure I will relive that moment of fatherly pride for at least the next few times I listen to the "Star Spangled Banner," and possibly longer. The two-minute song has even more meaning to me now than it had in the past.Several years ago during the playing of the national anthem at a Northern Lehigh High School football game a "moment" caught my eye. Head coach Jim Tkach was facing the flag flanked by his two sons, Tyler and Bo. The three were holding hands. I quickly grabbed a couple of photos.A couple years later, while attending the viewing for Bo, who died much too young, that photo was prominently displayed along with many other photos.It made me feel emotional and also brought back memories of that day on the football field.If you're at an event where the national anthem is being played, please remember that this song is more important to some people than it may be to you. So, to quote longtime Lehighton football announcer Reds O'Donnell, "Stop walking. Stop talking. Remove your hat and stand for a respectful rendition of our country's national anthem."