Gerald Ford dies in California home

     “President Ford will be remembered for his strong leadership and extraordinary service to his country during a difficult period in our nation’s history. In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, he restored public confidence in government through his personal integrity and forthright leadership. My thoughts and prayers are with Mrs. Ford and the former President’s family,” Senator Susan Collins said in a prepared statement.
Just before Ford became president, he and President Richard Nixon visited Loring Air Force Base. On July 3, 1974, Nixon and Ford met at the Limestone military base. Nixon was on his way home to Washington, D.C. and stopped in northern Maine to refuel from China while Ford came from D.C. to meet the President.
According to Jim Nevers, a former WAGM employee and native of Presque Isle, Ford was not really the focus of the visit at Loring, as Nixon was very much under the watchful eye of many in the nation. Nixon resigned from the presidency as a result of the Watergate investigations a mere month after his visit to Loring.
Despite a very tenuous period in the nation’s history, Nevers remembers the local excitement and anticipation at a visit from two of the most prominent men in the United States at the time.
“It was sort of a surprise visit from Ford who came to Loring to welcome Nixon back from China. They had the meeting at the base because at the time in his (Nixon’s) presidency he didn’t make a lot of appearances because of demonstrators. There were three U.S. Air Force One planes there, one that was used by the press corps who were ready when Nixon and Ford came out of their planes – it was pretty neat,” Nevers recalled.
At the time, Nevers was a camera man for WAGM but brought a still camera with him to Loring.
“You couldn’t really get that close – certainly not close enough for a handshake – you’d get a nod. The press had to go through three or four days of background checks, nowadays that’s no big deal but then it was. You had to apply for credentials to get on the base, also,” Nevers said.
With an audience of 2,000 people in the Loring Air Force Base airplane hangar, it was no small wonder that Nevers and his colleagues had to undergo a series of checks and that three television networks worked together to broadcast Nixon and Ford’s visit on a national scale.
“At that time they used land microwave that would only go one way. They didn’t have satellite. They had to put in a whole new microwave link to make the transmission go the other way, it took a week.
“ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered it for three different networks and all the press people got a chance to mingle. That was another really interesting part of the Nixon and Ford visit,” Nevers added.
Other Mainers recently recalled and mourned the loss of Ford, remembering him for his integrity and decency at a difficult time in American history.
“He was truly a great American who devoted his life not only to the nation he loved, but also to the finest and most ennobling ideals of public service,” said U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe in a prepared statement.