Reagan Leads Pentagon Retirement Ceremony : Weinberger Given a Full-Dress Farewell

President Reagan bid farewell Tuesday to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, his long-time friend and adviser, in a full-dress Pentagon ceremony with brass bands, a 19-gun salute and military aircraft flyovers.

Reagan praised Weinberger, who announced two weeks ago that he was retiring after nearly seven years at the Pentagon, as “the one American who has probably done as much as any other in history to restore the morale and readiness of our nation’s military.”

The President described Weinberger’s retirement as a “bittersweet moment” marking the departure from the Cabinet of one of his most trusted aides and most fervent ideological allies.

Toward the end of the ceremony, as the Air Force Band played the hymns of the four military services, Weinberger and Reagan were seen wiping tears from their eyes.

Ending Lifetime Career

Weinberger, 70, is leaving a government career that spanned four decades to care for his ailing wife, Jane, who is suffering from cancer and back problems. He is to be replaced by National Security Adviser Frank C. Carlucci, who is awaiting Senate confirmation. The Senate Armed Services Committee last week unanimously recommended Carlucci’s confirmation.

“When Cap came to this job more than six years ago,” Reagan said, using Weinberger’s nickname, “the Navy had been permitted to dwindle from more than 1,000 ships to less than 500. There were planes that couldn’t fly for lack of spare parts. And our men and women in uniform were seeing their pay in real terms shrink while pay in the private sector rose.

“With Caspar Weinberger at the helm, we turned that around, and today we have a military that is once again ready, able and willing,” he added.

Reagan awarded Weinberger the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Word for ‘Star Wars’

Weinberger used the occasion to deliver one final plug for the “Star Wars” space-based missile defense system, which he called “a bold move to study and then to deploy strategic defenses.”

He said that the Reagan era, marked by a $2-trillion defense buildup, has helped end a “decade of neglect” of the nation’s military that was “fed by a rather insidious idea that somehow, American power was immoral.”

As he ended his remarks, Army helicopters and Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force jets passed over in an aerial salute. A single B-1B bomber, representing one of the prized projects of the Reagan-Weinberger military, followed the jet squadrons.

The ceremony, on the parade ground in front of the Pentagon’s mall entrance, was attended by hundreds of foreign dignitaries and uniformed and civilian Pentagon employees. In the front row of workers was Fawn Hall, who gained fame from the televised Iran-Contra hearings as secretary to Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, the fired aide to the National Security Council.