Quote:
Originally posted by DZHBrown
I was listening to the news and it said that this will be the first state funeral for a President since LBJ. Anyone know why Nixon did not have one?
|
Nixon was a very private man... he actually turned down his Secret Service detail and used his own bodyguards only when it was necessary. If I remember correctly he specifically stated that he did not want a state funeral, just a simple ceremony at the Nixon library, where he buried his wife a year earlier.
After Nixon resigned from office in 1974, he flew on to California on Air Force One. At the precise moment that Gerald Ford ended the Presidential oath of office with 'So help me God', the commander of Air Force One contacted the regional air traffic control center:
"Kansas City Center, please change our call sign from Air Force One to SAM 27000."
From that point forward, Nixon became a former president.