At ABC Mechanical, every Friday is RED Friday. R.E.D. stands for Remember Everyone Deployed — a nationwide tradition of wearing red on Fridays to honor the service members currently deployed far from home. As a veteran-owned and veteran-managed company, it is a tradition that means something to us. This is what it stands for, where it came from, and how you can take part.
What RED Friday means
R.E.D. is short for Remember Everyone Deployed. The idea is simple: on Fridays, people wear something red as a visible reminder of the men and women in uniform who are deployed around the world — standing watch far from their families, their homes, and the everyday moments the rest of us take for granted.
It is not a uniform, a fundraiser, or a campaign with a logo. It is a quiet, recurring act of remembrance. A red shirt on a Friday says, without a word, we know you are out there, and we have not forgotten you. When a whole office, a whole job site, or a whole community shows up in red, that message becomes impossible to miss.
Where the tradition came from
Like a lot of grassroots movements, RED Friday does not have one tidy origin story — it has several, and they all point in the same direction. The practice grew during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spread by word of mouth, forwarded emails, and military families who wanted a way to show support that anyone could join. One widely cited account traces an early push to a group of students who began wearing red on Fridays so that deployed troops would know they were remembered and appreciated. Others credit military spouses and veterans who built websites and rallied their communities around the same simple gesture.
What matters more than the exact first Friday is that the tradition stuck. Years later, "RED Friday" still trends online every week, and red shirts still show up in workplaces, schools, and stadiums across the country. A small idea — wear red, remember the deployed — turned into something people carry on without being told to.
Why the color red
Red was chosen deliberately. It is the color long associated with courage, sacrifice, and the blood shed in service — and, just as importantly, it is impossible to overlook. The point of RED Friday is visibility. A sea of red in an otherwise ordinary workday is meant to catch the eye and start the conversation: why is everyone wearing red today? The answer is the whole reason for the tradition.
Why it matters at ABC Mechanical
ABC Mechanical is a veteran-owned and veteran-managed company. Supporting the military community is not a slogan we adopted for a marketing calendar — it is part of who we are and how we were built. Many of the values we run our business on, from discipline and accountability to looking out for the people on either side of you, came directly from time in uniform.
So every Friday, our team is encouraged to wear red. It is a small thing on its own. But week after week, it keeps something important in front of us: while most of us finish the workweek and head home to the people we love, countless service members remain deployed — missing holidays, birthdays, first steps, and ordinary Friday nights — so that the rest of us can have ours.
The point of the red shirt: it is a reminder, not a ceremony. Deployment is measured in the everyday moments that get missed — and RED Friday exists so those moments, and the people sacrificing them, do not go unnoticed.
Who we are remembering
Behind the phrase "everyone deployed" are real people: soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Guardians serving in places most of us will never see. They are away from spouses and kids, from parents getting older, from the routines that make up a normal life. Many are on their second, third, or fourth deployment. For their families back home, every deployment is its own kind of service — carried quietly, without a uniform.
RED Friday is for all of them. It does not single out a branch, a rank, or a mission. It simply says: if you are deployed, you are remembered.
How you can take part
You do not need a military background to join in — RED Friday is for everyone. If you want to show your support, it is as easy as it sounds: wear red on Fridays. Make it a habit at your workplace. Tell someone who asks what it stands for. If you know a deployed service member or a military family, a check-in, a card, or an offer of help carries the meaning even further than a shirt does.
To every service member deployed today and every Friday: thank you for your dedication, your sacrifice, and your service to our nation. We remember you — and we will keep wearing red until you are home.
Remember Everyone Deployed. Wear red. Show your support.