About six years ago I was asked to take my wheelchair bound mother-in-law to the airport before I went to work at the firehouse for the night shift. At security they couldn’t find a free person to escort her to the boarding gate area and asked if I would do it. I was wearing my FD uniform with badge and Gerber knife (multi-tool) on my belt and set off the metal detector. After removing the items and passing through OK, the TSA agent thanked me for helping out and returned my badge and KNIFE and off I went to the boarding gate. Just say’in...
(it was an international airport)
"Badge" is the operate word. The mouth-breathers at TSA can relate well to badges.