(The Center Square) – U.S. Marine and civilian speakers praised President Ronald Reagan for his commitment to peace through strength Thursday during a celebration of the 114th anniversary of his birth.
Hundreds of people gathered in a big tent on a cloudy morning on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum lawn on top of a hill overlooking Simi Valley, a city north of Los Angeles.
The audience stood as Ashley Reagan Dunster, the 40th president’s granddaughter, was escorted by Marine Brigadier Gen. Nick Brown, the commanding general of Camp Pendleton, and Dunster’s husband, police officer Joe Dunster, outside the tent for the laying of a wreath on Reagan’s nearby tomb. As the three of them stood in front of the tomb, Marines from Camp Pendleton in San Diego County honored Reagan with a three-volley salute.
Audience members, who varied from local residents to out-of-town visitors and dignitaries such as former U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, listened to patriotic music by the 1st Marine Division Band. The crowd also watched the Marines from Camp Pendleton carry flags during the posting of colors.
The Marines’ commanding general soon stood at the podium and discussed Reagan’s place in history.
“Ronald Reagan was a leader who believed in peace over war, but he was also a leader who understood that peace just doesn’t happen,” Brown told the audience.
Brown quoted one of Reagan’s speeches in which the president said the U.S. had a moral duty to give the military the nation’s best equipment and support.
Reagan’s presidency was one chapter in a “tremendous life,” David Trulio, president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, told the audience.
Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. He grew up to become a sports broadcaster, movie actor, the president of the Screen Actors Guild and governor of California.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served as deputy director of the CIA during the Reagan administration, was scheduled to speak at Thursday’s program, but couldn’t because he was hospitalized, Trulio said.
But Gates, who’s making a good recovery, sent the foundation the text of his speech and asked that it be read aloud, Trulio told the audience.
Andrew Littlefair, a Reagan Foundation board member, stood at the podium and read Gates’ speech, in which the former defense secretary praised Reagan for his shrewd approach to diplomacy and the Soviet Union.
“He was often a number of steps ahead of his critics on the left and the right,” Gates wrote in his address.
“As president, his chief priority was restoring America’s military strength. Fifteen years of Soviet modernization, coupled with years of cuts in our defense spending, had narrowed and in some cases erased America’s defense edge over the U.S.S.R.,” Gates said.
Gates noted that early during the Reagan administration, there was a buildup in U.S. defenses with the additions of tanks, planes, ships, submarines, combat vehicles and nuclear weapons. He also noted Reagan worked to make nuclear arms obsolete with his Strategic Defense Initiative. Nicknamed “Star Wars,” the anti-ballistic missile program was designed to shoot down nuclear missiles from space.
When Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader and started reforms in his nation, Reagan found someone he could work with, Gates said.
“He had a sense of the historic moment to know when it was time to sheath the sword and soften the tone,” Gates said about Reagan.
Reagan and Gorbachev went on to reduce weapons stocks by signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987.
Gates also praised Reagan’s ability to defuse tension with his sense of humor. Gates attended one Oval Office meeting when one of Reagan’s hearing aids screeched a couple times.
“He brought out the hearing aid, put it back in his ear, leaned over to me and whispered, ‘It’s my KGB handler trying to reach me,’ ” Gates wrote in his speech.
The audience laughed.
After the program, the crowd stood in line for a piece of the Reagan birthday cake inside the Reagan Library. Back outside, out-of-town visitors enjoying the cake explained why it was important to them to make the drive to honor the Republican president.
Tom Wiggins, a 63-year-old Pasadena resident, said he voted for Reagan in 1980 at the risk of becoming a “black sheep in a family of Democrats.”
Wiggins praised Reagan for his domestic and foreign policies and his ability to improve the U.S. position in the world.
Nicki Eakins, a 53-year-old Santa Clarita resident, came wearing a cap with the logo of the USS Ronald Reagan. Eakins, who attended the 2003 commissioning of the Nimitz-class supercarrier, described herself as a big fan of the president.
“He loved God and believed in peace through strength. He was able to get things done,” she said.