BY GARY WAYNE COX
Aircraft: Big Sandy Unicom…Citation 7…7…3…Bravo…Charlie…10 miles to the northeast… inbound for landing…
Unicom: Bravo…Charlie…winds calm…no other traffic…
I get to meet a lot of interesting people from all walks of life at the airport. Airplanes are actually more than just a mode of transportation; they are “time machines.” You can cover a lot of ground in them in a short time compared to driving. Corporate aviation is the backbone of my business, and CEOs of companies fly almost exclusively. That was really true at Big Sandy during the coal mining days. If you fly into Lexington Bluegrass Airport on any given day, you will see several business jets sitting at their FBO (Fixed Base Operation, fancy name for where private aircraft park).
Another group of people who take advantage of aviation includes politicians. Over the years, our governors and senators will sometimes visit several parts of the state on any given day and still be back home in time for dinner. In my 22 years managing our airport, I have met every governor, senator and congressman we have had. A few of them have actually remembered my name, and some even remembered my grandchildren’s names (I’ll be doing a story on that later).
A few years back, during a presidential election year, I watched the National Republican Party nominate Senator John McCain to run for president. Little did I know while watching him on TV that night that in just a few days, I would be shaking his hand at our airport. To kick off his bid for president, Sen. McCain started on a series of town hall-style meetings on his tour bus called the Straight Talk Express, and one, if not the first, stop was in Inez.
A few days after he was nominated, a man walked into my office and introduced himself to me as one of Sen. McCain’s campaign organizers.
“Sen. McCain will be visiting Inez, Louisa and Huntington in a couple of days, and I wanted to coordinate a few things with you at the airport,” he said.
“That’s exciting,” I replied. “What can I do to help?”
“Actually, there’s nothing you need to do,” he said. “I’m just making you aware that the Straight Talk Express bus will be picking up Sen. McCain at your airport, then the jet will reposition to Huntington. We would like to have ramp access for the bus, Sen. McCain will be on a very tight schedule, and as soon as the jet lands, we will be taking him quickly to Inez.”
“Yes, sir. No problem on the ramp access. I would, however, like to get the chance to shake Sen. McCain’s hand, if that’s possible,” I told him.
The campaign organizer grinned at me and said, “I think we will have time to make that happen, but there will be no event at all at the airport. Everyone will get their chance to see Sen. McCain at the courthouse in Inez. We don’t have time scheduled for anything here.”
“So I assume you would like me to keep it quiet that Sen. McCain will be flying into Big Sandy?”
“Well, that won’t be necessary,” he said. “There just won’t be any event here at the airport. We just want ramp access so we can quickly whisk him out of here to Inez.”
“Yes, sir. We will be glad to accommodate you any way we can.”
Since I was told there was no need for secrecy, the first thing I did was call my wife, Rossalene, and tell her of our special guest. Then I called my brother, Larry Joe, then my kids, and so on and so on. Just like an episode on “Mayberry,” the word got out that Sen. McCain, possibly the next President of the United States, was not only going to be at the courthouse in Inez but was flying into Big Sandy Regional Airport.
The next day the pilots of the plane informed me of the arrival time and a few minutes later, Mr. Robbie Fletcher, principal of Warfield Middle School, called and asked if I knew what time the jet would be landing. (I have known Mr. Fletcher since he was a student at Warfield himself.)
“I was told 10 o’clock, Robbie, but I was also told that there would not be anything happening here at the airport. They were going to quickly take him to the courthouse in Inez.”
Mr. Fletcher said, “I think this is pretty exciting. I don’t want my students to miss the opportunity to see a U.S. senator who may be the next President of the United States. If we take them to the courthouse, there’s a good chance they won’t get to see him, not enough room. I think they will remember the jet landing and seeing him at the airport; I think this will be a good learning experience for them. With your permission, I would like to bring my entire school, students, teachers and staff. Is that something we can do?”
“Yes, you can. We have plenty of room, and I totally agree with you, Robbie. I remember as a fifth grader getting to see President Johnson in Inez in 1964. We can accommodate you with no problem.”
About 30 other people called to say they would like to see Sen. McCain and planned on coming to the airport.
Remember, I was told I didn’t have to keep a secret.
About seven buses with Warfield students came inside the gate about an hour before the jet was scheduled to land. I parked them on the side of the terminal in the grass. About 30 cars of adults were parked in the parking lot. I hadn’t heard back from the campaign organizer since our meeting a few days before. To tell the truth, I was kind of dreading seeing him. Then he called, “Mr. Cox, the Straight Talk Express bus and I will be there in about 15 minutes. The jet with Sen. McCain will be there in about 30 minutes. Will it be OK to come directly to the ramp when we arrive?”
I hated to tell him, but the ramp was the only place left for anything to park. I had kids walking around looking at the planes, adults standing in line for the restrooms, the parking lot was full extending unto the grass. The scene here at the airport wasn’t like anything that young campaign organizer was expecting. I heard the air brakes go on the bus, and when I looked up, my campaign organizer was giving me a look like, “What is going on here?”
I said with a grin, “The bad news is the word got out about Sen. McCain flying in. The good news is, all these people want to see your candidate.”
I’m sure he thought he had just come in on the bus from Mount Pilot and was dealing with either Barney or Goober. I don’t know which one he thought I was, but I have to say he handled it pretty well once he grasped the situation.
He asked, “Where are you going to park the jet?”
I told him by the fuel farm, and about 10 seconds later, the pilot called in.
“OK, let’s park the bus over here (about 300 feet from the fuel farm). After you get the jet parked, I want all the kids lined up in two columns from the jet to the bus. Can you get the kids organized? Then I want all of the adults wanting to see Sen. McCain by the flagpole.”
Mr. Fletcher’s kids were very well behaved. Robbie had a system of him clapping once, and all the kids would clap twice when he needed their attention. He had already done the clapping method a couple of times on how to behave at the airport, and it really impressed me how well this worked and how disciplined his students were each time. We got the jet parked, the kids lined up and the adults gathered together.
The jet door opened and the organizer got onboard. The pilots got off and stood by the wing of the jet, talking with me. They wanted to be refueled as soon as all the students were away from the jet so they could relocate. They were pretty surprised by the crowd of people. For what seemed about 10 minutes, no one got out of the jet. I guess they were briefing Sen. McCain on the unexpected crowd and how to handle the “situation.”
I did want to shake Sen. McCain’s hand, but when he did exit the jet, I wasn’t looking, and he walked right past me toward the adults by the flagpole. I had on a white shirt, and the two pilots had on white shirts, and I’m sure he just thought I was one of them. He was about 20 feet away from me when he realized he had walked by me. He turned and came back. I welcomed him to Big Sandy as I shook his hand, and with a big grin, he said, “I’m totally shocked at this welcoming party.”
Sen. McCain talked to all the adults and then went down the entire line of students on both sides, speaking with them and shaking hands with anyone that wanted to meet him. I was humbled knowing how his plans had fallen apart. He was on a tight schedule, had a courthouse full of people waiting on him, and showed patience to those students who weren’t old enough to vote for him.
He didn’t win the election, but I hope that some of those same students, who are now of voting age, remember meeting the man whose flag-draped coffin was in the rotunda of the Capitol after his passing. If 10 percent of them remembered that day, the trip to the airport was a good lesson of our democratic process, civics and American history. Good job, Mr. Fletcher.
When he finally arrived at the courthouse in Inez, he got to meet Pilgrim resident and Navy veteran Larry Jack Adams, who served with Sen. McCain on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. Larry Jack and Sen. McCain were on the Forrestal at the same time, July 29, 1967, when a bomb set off a fire and 130 men lost their lives off the coast of Vietnam. It was an emotional reunion.
After refueling the McCain jet, I told the pilots, who had been flying for Sen. McCain’s wife’s family for over 20 years, the whole story about the crowd, and we had a good laugh before they repositioned to Huntington. I don’t know how late the Straight Talk Express got to Louisa and Huntington, but I bet that campaign organizer never laughed too much that day.
Aircraft: 7…7…3…Bravo…Charlie…departing runway 3… to the north…
Unicom: Thanks for the fuel sale…have a safe trip…
(Gary Wayne Cox is airport manager of Big Sandy Regional Airport, owned by Floyd, Johnson, Magoffin and Martin counties.)