Meeting President Reagan
June 16, 2004

Like many of you, I watched in awe as the nation bid farewell to our 40th president, Ronald Wilson Reagan, this past week.

I use the term "in awe" because of the impact this leader had on the world and the course of history, but more pointedly, the impact he had on me personally, and the course my life would take as a result.

I had seen three presidents in my life. The first was President John F. Kennedy when he was visiting Paris, France in 1961, shortly after his inauguration. He and French President Charles DeGaulle were driven around the Etoille and down the Champs Elysee. We were living in Paris at the time, so my mother and I took the metro to the Arc de Triumphe and barely managed to see President Kennedy's head as he passed by the crowd. Pretty exciting for a twelve year old! The second president I saw was actually not the president yet. It was George H. W. Bush. He was traveling in California and stopped for a rally in Stockton where I was stationed at the time. Isaura and I took our girls, Laura and Jenny, to see Mr. Bush in the hanger at the Stockton Airport. The third president I have seen was presidential candidate George W. Bush, once again, in Stockton. That time I was joined by my mother and my secretary, Gayle Mottweiler.

Coming of age during the '60s, I was definitely not part of those of my peers who foolishly believed that the United States was bad. In fact, following in the footsteps of my stepfather — and then my brother, John — I joined the Marine Corps, eventually serving a tour in Vietnam. I enlisted in Oakland, CA, just a few miles from where all the caterwauling of the anti-war protestors was taking place in Berkeley. When I returned from Vietnam, I was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, CA, right in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area. We were told by our military leaders not to wear our uniforms off the base. I thought, This is nuts!

After my enlistment was up in 1973, I went back to college, and stayed in the reserves. Being in the reserves in those days was pretty grim. We had reserve Marines who really didn't want to be Marines, challenging the system to allow them to have long hair tucked up under a "regulation" wig, so they could come to their reserve meetings and still appear to be military. It was a joke, and morale took a nose dive. When Isaura and I were married in 1976, we moved to Portland, OR. I visited the Marine reserve unit there and was disheartened by the low morale. I decided to concentrate all my energies on my seminary education. As a result, I stayed out of the reserves for nearly six years.

Only after the malaise of the '70s had passed did my interest in rejoining the military even become a cognizant thought, heralded by the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980. Here stepped onto the world scene a man who seemed to love life, who could laugh at himself, and who loved America. He told us it was okay to be patriotic again! I remember how refreshing that was! Being in the military was once again something to be respected. If President Reagan had accomplished nothing else during his two terms in office, the restoration of pride in country alone was enough.

In 1983, I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy Chaplain Corps. Early on, I had the unique privilege of meeting President Reagan. This came about because my brother was serving in the Reagan White House as an Advance Man, which required that he travel ahead of the president, arranging all the details necessary for various world-wide meetings. One such meeting — the Economic Summit in 1986 — took place in Tokyo, Japan. It just so happened that the ship I was on — the USS White Plains — was making a port call in Yokosuka at the same time.

My commanding officer gave me leave to join my brother in Tokyo. Most of the time, I simply stayed in the hotel room. John was very busy, and my leaving the hotel was not a good idea because of the stringent security being enforced. The bedroom John and I shared was right below the President's.

What truly made this a memorable occasion was when I received an invitation from the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan to attend a reception for President Reagan being hosted in the hotel. I would guess there were about 60 guests for this bit of white-collar schmoozing. The President came out and spoke to us for about 20 minutes, not using notes or a teleprompter. In his inimitable style, he captivated the audience.

Toward the end of the evening, 20 or so of us were pre-assigned to meet the President at the rope barrier. As the President made his way down the line to where I was standing, I shook his hand and said, "Mr. President, my name is Chuck Roots. I'm a Navy Chaplain, and I want you to know that I'm praying for you." His already firm handshake squeezed just a bit harder, at which point he looked at me with that wonderful smile of his, and simply said, "Thank you."

President Reagan was a man who made you swell with pride, reminding us all of the wonderful country we've inherited from our forefathers. As a military man, I'm proud to say that he was my Commander in Chief.

More special than all of that is the knowledge that this good and kind man had entrusted his life to Jesus, and even now is enjoying the glories of heaven.

It's good to know that we will meet again one day.