NewsMax at the Rotunda; A Nation Says Goodbye to Reagan

They were coming from the small towns, the farms and sidewalks of the big cities, some of them relatively new arrivals in this country.

"Viva La Reagan Revolucion" read the red T-shirt of a young man standing in the long line, behind thousands who had arrived even earlier than this 7 a.m. line filled with freedom-loving people who knew Ronald Reagan had made a big difference.

One woman, speaking very broken English, asked NewsMax’s reporter near Washington’s Union Station where she could find "the line." Those two words she did know.

As she hurried off, before she could be asked where she was from, one could surmise that she, like the young man in the red T-shirt, knew that freedom had come to many parts of the world because of Ronald Reagan – who, as Lady Thatcher had said, "won the Cold War without firing a shot."

It was a reminder that Ronald Reagan did not utter idealistic, throw-away lines when he said communism would one day be consigned to "the ash heap of history," and that "Mr. Gobachev [should] tear down this wall."

News of those comments spread by word of mouth in some of the deepest, darkest, most remote dungeons of the communist world, where victims of that evil movement took hope.

Sleep was not an issue for many of the people who came to pay their last respects to Ronald Reagan.

Certainly not for Rebecca Rector, a Columbus, Ohio, military wife who arrived with two young sons, a nephew and his friend in tow.

They had made the decision on the spur of the moment to drive hundreds of miles, arriving just as Washington’s morning rush hour was beginning.

There were predictions of severe heat in D.C. this day, but within earshot of NewsMax’s reporter Wes Vernon, Rector told the younger members of her party, "I don’t want to hear any complaints. It’s 113 degrees in Iraq," where her husband is stationed in Fallujah.

From Iraq, Marine major Lowell F. Rector talked to his wife as she and the boys were in line, before reaching the checkpoint where cell phones had to be silenced. This family was among the millions who loved the Gipper for restoring the nation’s confidence in its military, which had been on a starvation diet (despite Soviet advances around the world) before Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency.

A similar neglect of preparedness had been noticeable in the four years preceding 9/11 — "Trash and Gear" is the term Mrs. Rector recalls gaining some currency in military circles.

Maj. Rector had been a Navy nurse who helped then-President Reagan in the late '80s when he was hospitalized for removal of a polyp.

A law enforcement officer by profession, this reservist — according to recollections of his wife – realized after 9/11 that his redeployment was inevitable, this time as a Marine.

The Rectors were in the midst of purchasing a new house then, but the devoted military man — who had been schooled in aviations maintenance and forensic science — and Rebecca decided not to cancel those plans because, as President Bush said, if we retreat from living our lives, that’s a win for the terrorists.

Maj. Rector treasures the moment he had shared with the then president, when he had asked if there was anything he could get him. His smiling response was "No, I already have cancer, and I don’t need that." Thankfully, he was saved for the rest of his eight years as dommander in chief.

NewsMax learned that Rector finds the people of Iraq "very hospitable" to the Americans who are liberating them and bringing them the freedom that had not been known under the unbelievably cruel regime of Saddam Hussein. Unfortunately, says Rebecca, the media feel a necessity to "focus on the negative or the quick fix."

Interspersed throughout the crowds were military men and women in full uniform. They too appreciated the leadership of the 40th president. Though they might have been OK in civvies, their uniforms spoke volumes in terms of their respect for President Reagan. Some of them were stationed at the nearby Navy Yard.

Overnight driving did not deter the Rev. Lavon Gray, who, with his wife, Wendy, had made an eight-hour drive from the Greenville, S.C., area. They also made the last-minute decision that they just had to come to Washington and say goodbye to an honorable man who had done so much for family values in this nation.

Reagan had also done much to change the politics of the once-Democratic "Solid South." Former Democrat Gray told NewsMax he was "the first in my family with Republican loyalty."

Back in 1985, the future minister, who is now based at 1st Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., visited Washington in his senior year of high school, as part of a "Mock Congress."

The big parade for Reagan’s second inaugural had been canceled because of the bitterly cold weather.

That night, young Lavon Gray attended President Reagan’s inaugural ball at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He met Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, whom Reagan elevated to chief justice the following year.

Ex-Democrat Gray went on to get his bachelor’s degree in political science and also retained his new GOP affiliation.

Ronald Reagan so impressed him, he said, that even in the past 10 years of his silence, there was "a calming feeling just knowing of his presence" on earth.

Thousands more who braved whatever elements awaited them were pleasantly surprised — at least in the morning hours – as a cool breeze wafted across Capitol Hill, even as the sun was shining.

The Capitol Police and the Park Police had organized the whole event with utmost efficiency, offering bottled water and portable facilities along the way. Bags were collected at an entering checkpoint, to be picked up at a tent conveniently located at the exit.

As the line edged closer to the Rotunda entrance, one could look out from that elevated location to the beautiful view along the Mall to the Washington Monument at the opposite end.

The conversations in the line ceased as the mourners entered the hushed atmosphere in the Rotunda, where the beloved president lay in his flag-draped coffin.

They came by whatever means would enable to them to pay their last respects. Many drove long distances, as the Rectors and the Grays had done, or used local public transportation. The Washington Metrorail "subway" system reported an all-time daily record of 850,000 riders during the day that the former president’s body arrived from California.

They just kept on coming, walking by the coffin at a rate of 5,000 an hour.

America was saying a heartfelt, sometimes tearful goodbye to a giant.

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