The week started with an early morning mist that at times made it difficult to see beyond a few yards. While the mist made it difficult for us to visually search the perimeter of the library for intruders it also, as if to make up for impairing our sight, amplified even the slightest sounds.

Simi Valley CERT/DSW (Community Emergency Response Team / Disaster Service Workers) platoon had various duties to perform through out the week. Duties included:

• Perimeter security
• Press line security
• Escorting members of the press
• Traffic and parking control

Initially teams were placed on the hill to help keep an eye out for intruders. Later our primary duties changed to keeping members of the press behind the press line and to escort them onto the grounds when requested.

Simi Valley CERT/DSW teams were positioned at strategic locations to direct vehicles to the press, VIP or north parking lots depending on their credentials. There was an alphabet soup of agencies working the incident, some of which I had never heard of before. Of course the United States Secret Service was out in force tasked with the duty of not only protecting the Reagans but the many diplomats and heads of state that came to pay their respects.

When the public was invited to view the flag draped coffin an additional task was to keep the large passenger buses smoothly untangled as they made their way through the narrow winding road. This task was especially challenging as we had to regularly stop all of the buses to allow VIP motorcades up the hill.

It was amazing how respectful all of the public visitors were considering the number of hours they had to spend standing in line just for two minutes of viewing time. To allow as many people as possible to view the casket an additional 25 buses were added and the hours extended. In the end some 106,000 people made the trek up the hill to pay their respects and an unknown number visited and left items at the entrance to the library.

The experience of working several details at the Reagan Library during the week of President Reagan’s funeral culminated in dramatic fashion. The realization that this literal shining city on a hill didn’t have room enough for Kings, Presidents and Heads of State there are no adjectives to express how I felt about being one of the few to be there.

SAM 28000, the call sign of Air Force One when the standing President is not on board, brought the Reagans back from the State Funeral in Washington. On the way to Point Mugu NAS the large Boeing 747 flew low and rocked its wings as they flew over the library. The motorcade made their way to the library on side streets driving slow so that the many people lining the streets could pay their respects.

It was an awesome experience and a somber event. With a thousand or more people on the hill you could hear a pin drop as the motorcade came to a stop. The only sounds were of camera shutters being pushed to their limits to capture every moment.

The Simi Valley CERT/DSW teams that were not on duty stood at a secluded place in the upper parking lot so they could watch the ceremony. As the F/A-18 fighter jets performed their missing man formation it was as if we could reach out and touch them. The missing man rocketed skyward until it was out of sight. A short while later SAM 28000 over flew the library on its way back to Washington D.C., as if to bid one last final goodbye.

The week started with a cool early morning mist but it ended with a perfect warm California sunset.