The China Mail - National funeral service, flyover and 39 bells for Carter sendoff

Flags have been flying at half-mast around the country since Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Carter's state funeral officially begins on Saturday with Secret Service agents from his current and former protective detail carrying his casket to a hearse for a tour through Plains.

The motorcade bearing his remains is to pause at Carter's boyhood family peanut farm while a farm bell rings 39 times in honor of America's 39th president.

His body will then be taken to Atlanta for a brief stop at the Georgia Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator before becoming governor, and a moment of silence.

From there, Carter will be escorted to the Carter Presidential Center where he will lie in repose from 7:00 pm on Saturday (0000 GMT Sunday) to 6:00 am (1100 GMT) on Tuesday to allow the public to pay their respects.

Carter's remains will be flown on Tuesday morning from a military base in Georgia to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on a US Air Force plane dubbed Special Air Mission 39.

A motorcade will then transport the body of the former commander-in-chief to the US Navy Memorial.

Carter, who attended the US Naval Academy, graduating in 1946, and served on submarines, will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for a funeral procession to the US Capitol.

Military pall bearers will carry his flag-draped casket to the rotunda of the Capitol where his body will lie in state until 7:00 am (1200 GMT) on Thursday surrounded by a guard of honor of service members.

Carter will be the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, was the first.

- National Funeral Service -

A national funeral service is to be held on Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in the nation's capital which also hosted state funerals for former presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.

All four living former presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump -- are expected to attend.

President Joe Biden is to deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.

Biden has declared Thursday to be a national day of mourning and federal government offices are to be closed for the day.

He has also ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for 30 days as is customary, which means that will be the case during Trump's January 20 inauguration.

That drew the ire of the president-elect who took to Truth Social to say "no American can be happy" about having flags at half-mast when he takes office.

Following the cathedral service, Carter's remains will be flown aboard Special Air Mission 39 back to Georgia for a private funeral service at the Baptist church in Plains where Carter taught Sunday school.

A final motorcade through his hometown will ferry Carter's body to a burial plot at his residence.

US Navy jets will conduct a flyover in his honor before he is laid to rest alongside his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at the age of 96.

G.Tsang--ThChM