Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday. Carter's remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. A motorcade carried the casket into Washington for a final journey to the Capitol, where members of Congress will pay their respects, the AP reports.
Cannons fired and a military band played when the former president's hearse was removed from the plane. A hearse emblazoned with the seal of the president joined a motorcade that steered toward Washington.
- His hearse stopped at the US Navy Memorial, where his remains were transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the rest of his trip to the Capitol. The location nods to Carter's place as the lone US Naval Academy graduate to become commander in chief.
- Carter, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, will lie in state Tuesday night and again Wednesday. He will receive a state funeral Thursday at Washington National Cathedral. President Biden will deliver a eulogy.
- Before the casket arrived in the Capitol Rotunda, the US Army Brass Quintet performed for hundreds of lawmakers, the Washington Post reports. Three of the nine US Supreme Court justices were also present. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Elena Kagan stood next to Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in the rotunda.
- Members of the military performed a 21-gun salute when the procession arrived at the Capitol. The Carter family and surviving members of the former president's Cabinet gathered at the top of the Capitol steps to serve as honorary pallbearers, ABC News reports.
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