We were a pair, and between us we had what the authorities wanted.

She had a boarding pass needed to get to the gate where 75 veterans – one of them a WWII veteran – of RI Honor Flight Justice would board a chartered Breeze Airlines flight to Washington, D.C. very early Saturday morning.  She wore an Honor Flight t-shirt and was familiar with the drill, although she wouldn’t be taking the flight. She encountered a problem as flight participants, the RI Professional Firefighter Pipes and Drums and firefighters in their dress uniforms, who would provide the pageantry of the occasion, cleared security. She didn’t have her driver’s license. On the other hand, I had my license, but I didn’t have a boarding pass. We were stuck outside the TSA gate.

As they say in Rhode Island, “it pays to know a guy,” so I wasn’t too concerned. Last week I called retired Providence Fire Chief George Farrell, who organized the first Rhode Island Honor Flight in 2012 and has been the driving force of the organization that had conducted 32 flights to the nation’s capital. Flight Justice was number 33.

Having covered more than a dozen flight departures from Green Airport and being a member of the last flights where the Senator Robert Dole personally greeted the veterans at the WWII Memorial, George had my information. “Text me your birthdate, just to be sure,” he said.

George was in the thick of it when I arrived outside the terminal. It was a boisterous group of veterans and their guardians.

“Some are quiet, but not this one,” Michael Montacalvo of Channel 12 said of the group. Montacalvo is an Honor Flight regular. “I don’t know why this doesn’t get more [media] coverage,” he added.  

“Well, the Beacon is here,” chimed a man wearing the yellow t-shirt of an Honor Flight coordinator from behind me. I didn’t recognize him, but Mike Moran, who served alongside Farrell when he was Providence fire chief knew who I was. I figured he’d be my ticket to get to the gate.

Farrell, voice booming, quieted the crowd. He wanted WWII Navy veteran William McClintick to lead the group into the terminal where family, friends, the Pawtuxet Rangers and first responders were primed to give the vets a rousing sendoff. This was the moment they had been waiting for. I went ahead to catch the excitement and the cheerleaders. I expected a gaggle of elected officials. There were some, including Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Treasurer James Diossa, state Sen. Peter Appollonio, Rep. Robert Craven, who disclosed he is running for attorney general, and Mayor Frank Picozzi.  

As terminal renovations are underway, with much of the arrival level blocked off, the procession was short and flight members were quickly ushered to the second floor and TSA clearance. Morgan ran interference, calling Farrell, who assured him I was on the list. It looked like I had the connections. This was going to be a piece of cake, or so I thought.

Mike (his last name escapes me), a step up on the security ladder, appeared from the maze of TSA checkpoints. Morgan insisted I was on the list.  Mike instructed me to wait. Pretty soon the woman who had forgotten her license and I were the only ones waiting to be cleared.

A uniformed agent bearing a sheet of paper approached the woman. They conferred. She was ushered through. Mike reappeared. He had the list, but I wasn’t on it. He explained that apparently my name hadn’t reached Breeze Airways in time for the required security clearance.

The terminal was strangely quiet. The lower level that only 30 minutes earlier was filled with well-wishers was empty. But leaving the airport wouldn’t have been possible without help. I found a Laz Parking kiosk and attempted to scan my ticket. I fed in my credit card. Nothing happened. I repeated the process, again, nothing. I looked around. Nobody was there.

A woman with a purposeful walk headed for the exit.

“Do you know if this works?” I asked pointing to the machine. She paused, although on her way to find her ticket, which she had left in her car. My luck, I had found a veteran of airport parking. 

“Have you got your phone?”

I pulled it out and she instructed me to scan the QR code printed outside the kiosk. Up popped a form to enter my credit card information, which when completed produced a QR code on my screen to be scanned at the exit gate.

Making it all the more convenient, the gate opened as I approached. I don’t know how that happened but then the airport is a mystery sometimes.

I guess I don’t know “a guy” to get through security, but I sure met a helpful stranger to get my parking straightened out.