Fallon man marches in Reagan's Washington processional

When Donald Frey of Fallon was born, Ronald Reagan was in his third year as President of the United States.

Like Frey, many of the military men and women who marched down Constitution Avenue Wednesday don't remember the man whose casket was being slowly drawn to the capitol building by a team of horses.

They don't remember the "cold warrior" the former president's admirers discuss. They never saw the "Great Communicator" in action. They didn't hear the phrase "I cannot recall" become a mantra for detractors as it wafted out over the nation's airwaves so many years ago.

But still, many of them scrambled for the chance to stand watch over his body and become part of the nation's final memories of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

"It certainly was a great honor to march in his processional," said the Churchill County High School graduate.

Frey, a 21-year-old student and glider pilot instructor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., said he was in a briefing Sunday when it was announced that Reagan had died and that the academy would be sending a contingent for his Wednesday processional.

Frey e-mailed his superiors and asked to be included. Glider flights had recently been cancelled so his whole unit was flown to Annapolis, Md., where the Air Force Academy cadets bunked with Naval Academy students and engaged in a healthy dose of inter-branch rivalry.

"We were wearing our flight suits so we stuck out like a sore thumb... We had a good time," Frey said.

The day of the processional, Frey's contingent stepped off the bus in full dress uniform into 90 degree heat and sky-high humidity.

"Within five minutes I was dripping with sweat," Frey said.

The only strenuous part of the whole ordeal, Frey said, was standing at attention, completely motionless for a half hour as Reagan's casket made its way by.

Standing straight up and still, the blood gets trapped in the legs and leads to the occasional fainting.

Nobody from the Air Force Academy fell out of formation, Frey said, but four or five from the Naval Academy had trouble, he said, including one who ended up lying on the pavement.

After standing at attention for so long, the march was simple, even in the stifling heat.

Frey had never been to the nation's capital before travelling there to walk with the former president.

"It was quite a way to see it for the first time," he said.

Cory McConnell can be contacted at cmcconnell@lahontanvalleynews.com