Why is it Called Red Boots?

Like anything, our project needed a name.  We at first considered The Marine's Bible Project, but that was rejected because it was too specific and omitted other branches of the service.  But, we also thought that we might have a Marine's and then a Soldier's and perhaps more, but that became too many isolated projects and because there will always be new marines, new soldiers and sailors, we knew that a single project would never be concluded.

I wear Red Boots and so I have acquired that as a nickname and also a trademark of sorts.  Some people with whom I have interaction don't know my name, or they don't remember it, because they are in public and deal with too many people.  But few forget my Red Boots, so after I give my name and hear "Who?" I will say "Red Boots" and I am usually remembered. from that.  I considered naming the project after my son but he was a musician and far from any association with the military.  In fact, his health would have prevented his enlistment had he wanted to enlist.  My son, Stephen William Payne (1967-2003) was diagnosed with Type I (Juvenile) Diabetes at age fourteen so he had acquired the disease when he was thirteen, and it shaped the rest of his life.

Somehow affixing Red Boots to it became natural to me since often the soldiers and marines also knew me as either Red Boots, The Photographer, or in some cases, just "The old guy."  That's alright as many years separate us, the young soldiers and marines from me.  In fact, March 9, 2011 marked the day, fifty years ago that I stood with my right hand raised before a navy captain and took the oath of enlistment.  I did not remember all of the words, only, "I, Stephen Joe Payne, do solemnly..." and at or near the end, "...so help me God."  I heard "Congratulations men, you are now men of the United States Navy."  At the word men, we must have been looking around to see to whom he was talking for we were boys, seventeen in my case, with the eldest of the group of four only nineteen.  There was a lot of distance then too between seventeen and nineteen.  From my vantage point today, seventeen and twenty-nine are almost the same.

Red Boots makes as much sense to me as almost anything I can think of, so Red Boots it is.  I, and we, are not yet a non-profit organization, nor exactly a charity.  We are just one person with a specific mission, and as a friend told me, an evolving mission.  My mission here is to give Military Branch Service Bibles to the enlisted men and women, and officers, of the United States Armed Forces to the best of my ability for as long as I am able, and if it evolves into an organization that continues to do so, then I will feel blessed for having contributed in a small way to something bigger than I am.

Red Boots it is.

Stephen Joe Payne