Ford state funeral to have modest grandeur

Some elements missing
Barbara Owens, speaking for the Military District of Washington, said Thursday the family asked for several elements of the traditional funeral procession to the Capitol to be excluded from the ceremonies. They are:

• The caisson, a converted cannon wagon drawn by six horses of the same color. Ford’s casket will be driven by hearse instead.
• The riderless horse, which follows the caisson, with boots reversed in the stirrups of the empty saddle.
• The flyover of 21 fighter aircraft, with one executing the “missing man” maneuver. Instead, a flyover will happen in Grand Rapids, where Ford spent most of his childhood and practiced law before representing the city in Congress for 25 years. He will be interred there, on a hillside north of his presidential museum.

Ford’s casket will travel the length of the Capitol Building over three days, pausing in front of the House chamber on the way in Saturday and in front of the Senate chamber on the way out.

Those unusual extras were designed to honor Ford’s service to both chambers, as a House member and as Senate president, by virtue of his position as vice president.

At the end of the funeral procession from Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday, a military team will carry the coffin up the steps of the East Front of the House. It will then lie in repose in front of the House chamber and be carried into the Rotunda for a service and public viewing.

In contrast, Reagan’s casket was handed off between three teams of military personnel up the West Front stairs of the Capitol, involving three times more steps, and directly into the Rotunda. That was done, according to associate Senate historian Don Ritchie, because of construction on the east side.

It was unlikely that Ford’s visitations would draw the crowds of the Reagan funeral, when more than 200,000 people on both coasts paid their respects to the two-term president.

But the Capitol could be crowded and its members hard to seat, Ritchie said, because the funeral takes place with Congress in transition, and former lawmakers, current ones and newly elected ones are expected to attend.

The timing also caught the majestic National Cathedral in transition. Much of the property is marred by sand, mud and construction equipment, all visible from the cathedral’s front entrance, because workers are building an underground parking garage.

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