On Friday Former President George H W Bush passed away at the age of 94.
When former President George H.W. Bush is laid to rest Thursday afternoon at his presidential library in College Station, Texas, the ceremony will mark the end of a long-established ritual planned, with literally military precision, down to the second.
His family had a large role in planning the funeral for Bush, who died Friday at age 94. But it is the Military District of Washington, part of Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, that is responsible for staging the ceremonies — anti-royalist America's answer to royal pomp and circumstance.
And make no mistake: It is a military operation, befitting a war hero who gave his service revolver to a Navy lieutenant aboard the submarine that rescued him after his plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. It involves military units coordinating split-second movements in at least three states and the District of Columbia, not to mention the Air Force's flagship jet, Air Force One, which will fly Bush's body from Houston to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday morning.