A Dec. 31 article incorrectly said that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was present as an honorary pallbearer when former president Gerald R. Ford's casket arrived in Washington to lie in state. Rumsfeld was not there^ , because his plane had been ^ was delayed.
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A Solemn Homecoming
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The cortege left the air base at 5:53 p.m. and traveled via the Capital Beltway, which was briefly closed, to Alexandria, where the Fords lived when the former chief executive represented his Michigan district in the U.S. House.
Along Washington Street, a crowd of several hundred assembled around the intersection with King Street, and those who went to pay respects were joined by a throng of shoppers. Word spread through the crowd that Ford had once lived in Alexandria.
Sylvia Lukens, a 37-year resident of Alexandria, waited in the cold for about an hour to see the president who had once lived a few blocks from where the motorcade was passing. "I liked that Ford still had affection for this town," Lukens said. "Even when he entered the high echelons of power he stayed here. That says a lot about the man."
As the motorcade drove through, the crowd burst into soft applause. "He had no pretenses, that was what was so refreshing about the man," Lukens said.
The procession then made its way north, crossing Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River and heading for the World War II Memorial.
At the Ford family's request, the cortege paused on floodlit 17th Street before the twin stone arms of the Mall's World War II Memorial plaza.
Ford served as a navigator and gunnery officer on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey at the height of the war in the Pacific, and one of the memorial's 24 metal relief panels depicts a frenetic moment on the deck of a carrier, with a plane about to take off amid hurrying pilots and crew.
As the hearse stopped, Navy Chief Boatswain's Mate Carlos Ribbot, 41, stepped forward, saluted with his right hand and with his left raised a stainless steel boatswain's pipe hanging from an ornately braided rope lanyard around his neck.
Ribbot, a native of Humacao, Puerto Rico, played the three long, solemn notes that constitute "piping the side," the Navy's traditional farewell.
As Ribbot piped, a group of 12 Eagle Scouts from local Boy Scout troops gave their three-fingered salute as they stood at attention in olive green pants and tan shirts, draped in merit badge sashes. Ford is the only president to have been an Eagle Scout, said Alan F. Lambert, scout executive of the National Capital Area Council.
One of the Scouts was Jeb James, 17, of Arlington County, a member of Troop 664 in Baileys Crossroads. "It's a pretty big honor," James said. "He's the only Eagle Scout to become president. . . . Didn't he fight in World War II, and he saved his boat? He played for Michigan, and was the MVP center for his team."
