More than 1,500 hundred gathered at the Nixon Library to commemorate President Nixon’s 111th birthday on January 9, 2024, remembering his five decades of public service as a U.S. Navy officer, Congressman, Senator, Vice President, President and Elder Statesman.
Navy Captain Jessica O’Brien, Commanding Officer of Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, conducted an official presidential wreath-laying and delivered remarks encouraging the audience to use President Nixon’s life as a model for standing up for what you believe in and striving to make a difference.
Honoring President Nixon’s military service, the ceremony concluded with a three-volley rifle salute conducted by the Newport Beach American Legion rifle detail and the playing of Taps.
Additional program participants included the Navy JROTC of Troy High School, Navy Chaplain Benjamin Box of the Naval Medical Center San Diego, Navy Band Southwest and Richard Nixon Foundation President & CEO Jim Byron.
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Later in the day, former House Speaker, historian and bestselling author Newt Gingrich made a record with his twenty-first visit to the Nixon Library to share his perspectives on the 2024 presidential election, and America’s role in the world amid this period of increased global conflict.
Callista Gingrich, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, and member of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation since 2023 joined her husband to sign her bestselling children’s books Hail to the Chief and Remember the Ladies while Speaker Gingrich signed his latest bestseller, March to the Majority: The Real Story of the Republican Revolution.
Speaker Gingrich gave a sweeping overview of the life of Richard Nixon and his accomplishments during the turbulent second half of the twentieth century. While addressing current events, he examined the question, “what can we learn from studying Nixon’s life and how he approached problems?”.
Speaker Gingrich called the Nixon Library “one of the centerpieces of American patriotism and American history” and concluded his remarks with an endorsement of the Richard Nixon Foundation’s American Civics Campaign, an initiative to elevate the Foundation as a premier center for civics education. While expressing that American civics is “the heartbeat of our entire civilization,” Speaker Gingrich stated, “I’m delighted that the Nixon Foundation is taking up this important cause of civics education.”
Learn more about the American Civics Campaign.
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