The body of former U.S President George HW Bush has made its final journey to Washington DC. The former president will lie in state at the U.S Capitol. Bush’s loved ones including former President George W Bush, the late president’s Secret Service detail, and a service dog named Sully boarded a plane normally reserved for transporting sitting American presidents to accompany the body on its flight from Texas to Maryland. The plane arrived at Joint Base Andrews at 3.22pm before the late president was transported to the Capitol rotunda in Washington. The U.S Military members presented a 21-gun salute and an air force band played solemn tributes after the one-term president arrived back in the nation’s capital for the final time.
Bush served as America’s 41st president from 1988 until 1992 and served before that as vice president during Ronald Reagan’s administration. Several members of Bush’s administration sat behind the junior former President Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the late president’s other son as the late president was brought in and placed on a pedestal in the center of a throng of mourners in the Capitol Rotunda.
The president’s memory was honored in speeches by the U.S Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Vice President Mike Pence. McConnell said in his remarks that the Greatest Generation achieved all-American accomplishments and exhibited all-American virtues. It may just be that no one did that as fully as our forty-first president. George Bush was the best of the best. Pence also said that the late president was a role model and he gave the longest remarks in the Capitol.