Letters from my son.
During the year of 2010, my son, Travis, was serving in the United States Marine Corp overseas in Afghanistan. I had a ballpark idea of where he was and some of the missions he was sent on. He would be out on FOB duty some of the time and the RIT details for weeks at a time. So getting letters or emails was sporadic at best.
This particular letter was very different. As with most of his letters, they were worded very vague and usually followed with ill explain laters…. However when I went to the mailbox and saw this letter I was immediately intrigued. At first glance I was hard pressed to believe that it was even mailed. Then to have made it through the mail system including the armed service postal service and then the USPS to my doorstep was incredible.
The reason was that it was a piece of cardboard wrapper from an MRE. (Meal Ready to Eat). These are usually field rations indicating that he was on a multiple day mission. The letter was irregular in shape as it was what was left over when it was opened to get the food out. Addressed to me and stamped with postmark from his base and then again along the route to my house.
It included the I’m OK and I’ll be home soon. (They are told to say that). However, the last paragraph was above cryptic in wording. Something like “I won’t write for awhile. The rock is red”.
Now the first part I understood. “I won’t write for awhile.” meant he would be deployed out in the field for an undisclosed amount of time and not to worry if I did not hear from him for a while.
But the second line; “The rock is red”. I had no clue. We have always had code words since the kids were able to talk and remember. We would come up with a common word that would not alert anyone else, but we would know something was up.For example if we were out in public and saw something that we should all watch, I might say “Up there” meaning I saw someone acting suspicious that I wanted the kids to keep an eye out for.
But in all of our code words, we never used the “Rock is red”.
So, my curiosity got to me wanting to know if he was trying to send me a coded message. During the time of his tour of duty, as well as Camille’s tour in the USCG, I volunteered with the Patriot Guard Riders. This is a group of motorcycle riders that provide escort and honor guard lines with American flags at funerals, welcome home, and other special functions for military past and present.
Most of the members served or were currently serving in the military. And a large number were Marines. So I very discreetly would ask if any of them knew what the “Rock is red.” meant. No one knew or would own up to it. Since there are certain things that military personnel will only share with others that have been there, I wasn’t certain which one it was.
Over the period of months that Travis was deployed, I asked untold numbers of Marines if they knew. Finally the day comes when he returns from his deployment and can come home for 10 days. We pick him up at the airport and make a B-line for Bill Millers BBQ!!!! His first request was American food not from a pouch.
I gave him a few days and finally asked him to explain about the reed rock. At first he looked at me in confusion. So I went and retrieved the letter and showed it to him. He laughed and said that when he was writing, he was standing in line waiting to mount up to go on a week deployment to a FOB. Right next to the gate he was going to go through was Pedro’s Weather Station. He said some Priest named Father Pedro had placed a board with some humor. It read:
Pedro’s Weather Station – how to tell the weather in this area. Then single lines under it would read “If the rock is wet – it’s raining”, “If the rock is white – it’s snowing”, “If the rock is dusty – it’s dry”, “If the rock is blue – it’s cold”, and “If the rock is red – it’s hot”!!!
Now years later I will run into one of the people I asked if they knew what “The rock is red” meant. I just tell them it was a code about a mission he went on.