US: As a military band played Hail to the Chief and Amazing Grace, Ronald Reagan started his last journey to Washington yesterday after an outpouring of affection and grief in California.
The body of the nation's 40th president was flown in a flag-draped coffin aboard a presidential jet that took off from the Point Mugu Naval Air Station in California following a short, poignant ceremony in which a Marine colour guard fired a 21-gun salute from canons.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan, dressed in black and looking sombre, climbed the steps of the blue and white Air Force plane and waved goodbye to a small crowd of onlookers.
Reagan's casket was borne to the airport from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, about 25 miles away, where it had been viewed by more than 100,000 mourners. The hearse was greeted at the airport by members of a military honour guard who unloaded the coffin and carried it between two rows of soldiers, sailors and airmen onto the jet waiting on the tarmac.
Mrs Reagan stood silently looking on as her husband's body was loaded onto the plane.
In Washington, crowds had already begun waiting to pay their respects to Reagan, whose casket will be taken by horse through the streets of the city in a funeral procession before lying in state in the US capital.
The Washington procession will include a riderless black horse, with boots turned backward in the stirrups, indicating that the warrior will not ride again.
Reagan died on Saturday, aged 93, after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.
As president from 1981 until 1989, the conservative Republican generated controversy during his years in office, which were marked by social and political divisions at home and anti-American sentiment abroad.
Officials said more than 150,000 visitors were expected to line the streets in Washington, providing a security headache at a time when the the US government has already warned citizens to be on the alert for a possible terrorist attack.
Joanne Drake, chief of staff for Reagan's office, told the Los Angeles Times that Nancy Reagan was stunned by the affection being displayed for Reagan, beloved by many for his work in ending the Cold War but also reviled by some for his support of right-wing governments in Latin America and elsewhere.
The President, Mrs McAleese, will attend the state funeral tomorrow.
- (Reuters)