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In 1966, just graduated from high school, I saw Ronald Reagan on the stump as be ran for governor of California. In the parking lot of Lakewood Shopping Center he stood in the back of a pickup truck and made his speech. Don't recall what he said, but he sure had a way of saying it.
In 2004, living in Orange County, my 14 year old daughter and I drove up to the Reagan Library to view his casket along with thousands of others. As we walked past I immediately noticed that the flag draping the casket was the standard-issue cotton flag that I had folded on a many funeral details when I was a snuffy. The ordinariness of the flag struck me powerfully: he and I, and all the others of us who served, will at the end share this same expression of honor.
Having served under Carter, I do remember the relief many of us in the Army felt when he was elected president, and then would speak 6 of the most memorable and important words of the 20th century:
"Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
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