New Weapons Featured at Farewell : Grateful Armed Forces Salute Reagan

President Reagan, flanked by new weapons of war, was honored today with a 21-gun salute in an elaborate farewell ceremony by the military that benefited from his record $2.5-trillion defense buildup.

A Marine band played martial music as Reagan, who will leave office Jan. 20, reviewed honor guards representing the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard in a huge hangar at Andrews Air Force Base on the outskirts of Washington.

Reagan, who presided over the nation’s biggest peacetime military buildup, told the assembled 1,400 military men and civilians that being armed forces commander in chief “is the most sacred, most important task of the presidency.”

He dedicated a moment of silence for the 595 servicemen who died on duty during his presidency. “They are not with us today because they are at the right hand of God. . . . They are our heroes,” he said.

The President, sent off to retirement by the marching tunes of each service, looked on the verge of tears when the band played strains of Auld Lang Syne. He blinked and swallowed hard as he stood at attention for the goodby.

In the background were some of the weapons that joined the U.S. arsenal during his eight years as President--an Army Apache attack helicopter, a Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter, a Navy F-18 fighter, a Marine Harrier jump-jet and a B-1B bomber.

The Defense Department declined to estimate the cost of the ceremony.