How tweet it is

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Hours after sending his first ever "tweet," a long-time New England Patriots fan and twenty-year Air Force veteran was given tickets to watch his favorite team play the Baltimore Ravens Jan. 22 at Gillette Stadium, courtesy of Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker.

Joseph "JP" Peloquin, now retired from the Air Force and working as a program integration team lead for the Space Fence program office, had just signed up for Twitter, a social media website, Jan. 19 when he decided to "follow" his favorite Boston-area athletes.

"I signed up first to follow Tom Brady. Twitter then recommends following other Patriots players like (Rob) Gronkowski and (Wes) Welker," said Peloquin. "I started following Welker when I saw his tweet sent two-minutes earlier."

Welker's tweet: "@WesWelker: So @Gillette has given me 2 tix to the game this weekend. To support #thewelker83. Tell me y u deserve these tickets!"

Peloquin's first tweet in response read: "@JPPeloquin: @WesWelker I've kept pace with the Pats through 20 years of military service all over the world. Yes, even in Iraq..."

Content with having joined Twitter -- not even certain he had sent off his first tweet correctly -- Peloquin went to bed thinking he had no shot at the tickets given Welker's 200,000 plus followers.

That is until his phone rang at 11:30 p.m. with WHDH-TV Channel 7 News calling to congratulate him. This began a whirlwind few days of interviews that culminated in watching his favorite team with his 14 year-old daughter, Morgan, beat the Ravens for the American Football Conference championship.

"I thought it was a joke," said Peloquin, referring to the late phone call. "I got up to check to see for myself and, sure enough, he had tweeted me back telling me I had won two tickets to the AFC championship game."

Although he was excited to have the chance to be at such an important game and watch the Patriots win, it was secondary to having the opportunity to share it with his daughter, who was attending her first-ever game.

"Being there with my daughter was the most memorable part of the whole thing," said Peloquin.

Now he hopes the magic continues for the Patriots as they play in the Super Bowl in two weeks.