“O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave” is the last line of the first stanza of the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” To thank the military, the saying “Land of the free, thanks to the brave” has been used on bumper stickers and T- shirts.
 
“Land of the free, thanks to the brave” has been cited in print since at least November 2001.
 
   
Wikipedia: The Star-Spangled Banner
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”,[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.
(...)
Lyrics
O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
 
Thanks-to-the-Brave
Land of the Free Thanks to the Brave Patriotic Bumper Stickers
         
CafePress
CafePress > T-shirts > America - Land Of The Free Thanks To The Brave Lig
 
12 November 2001, New York (NY) Post, “A grateful city salutes its vets” by Neil Graves, pg. 29:   
The hand-held signs along the Veterans Day Parade route said it all: “Land of the free, thanks to the brave,” and “Thank you for our freedom.”
 
National Review Online
October 3, 2008 12:00 P.M.
Vote Early and Often — At the Box Office
Let the Hollywood Left know what you think of them: see An American Carol.
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
(...)
An American Carol is more than a wonderfully entertaining film. It is more even than a forceful political statement on behalf of the values and institutions that have made America, as the bumper sticker has it, thanks to the brave, the land of the free.
 
Weasel Zippers
Boomerette says:
July 4, 2011 at 11:43 am
Land of the free thanks to the brave.