--> T oday, July 13, 2010, my brother  received the Malcolm Hickey Award  for Lifetime Achievement in the  American Legion. My sister, Grace, arranged for all the local family  to surprise him at the presentation. Some of us were too far away to attend.  I wrote him this letter. _____________________________________________ Dear Mike, You have been our hero for so many years,  in both war and peace. You not only served our  country well, but you have continued serving  the veterans as a constant reminder to all of us  that freedom is not free. It costs somebody  something whether it is a mother her son,  a father his sanity as he waits by the television  or radio to hear word from the battlefield.  Distorted or not, it’s something to cling to.   A maybe. A perhaps. Or that daily trek to  the paper box to see for himself a bit of a map  so he can say, “Here, right here! His last letter  said he was on this road!”—always grateful for t