Local Military Bases to Observe Day of Mourning : Nixon: Naval facilities in Point Mugu and Port Hueneme will have minimal operations. Postal deliveries will be suspended.

Thousands of defense workers and Navy aviators will be idled today at the Naval Air Weapons Station at Point Mugu to mourn the death of former President Richard Nixon.

With flags already lowered to half-staff for 30 days to mark Nixon’s passing, Point Mugu and the Naval Construction Battalion Center nearby in Port Hueneme will observe the day of mourning with minimal operations and skeleton staffs, base officials said.

As a result of President Clinton’s declaration of a day of mourning, “We’re observing the holiday routine,” said Marge Hays, spokeswoman for the Point Mugu weapons testing base.

“All nonessential offices will be closed,” she said. “The airfield will be open and some air operations that cannot be canceled will go on, but by and large, the great majority of people who work here will have the day off or their operations reduced.”

While most banks and all city, county and state offices will remain open, postal service will be suspended and post offices closed in Nixon’s honor. The offices and facilities of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District also will be closed, officials said.

In the days since Nixon’s death at age 81 Friday after a stroke, some schoolteachers have been giving lessons about the nation’s 37th President, showing their classes televised reports on his funeral and lecturing on his work.

At Camarillo High School, the honors American history class was already deep into studies of the Nixon presidency the day he died.

The teacher, Jim Graves, said: “Their assignment happened to be dealing with Richard Nixon and the enigma he presents. We have discussed that to quite an extent, the conservative as well as the liberal perspective on Richard Milhous Nixon.”

The class has rounded out its study of the Nixon presidency with discussions of detente and “the great breaking-down of Chinese and Soviet barriers to the United States,” Graves said.

At Valley View Junior High School in Simi Valley on Tuesday, students were allowed to watch telecasts of the motorcade that bore Nixon’s casket from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to the presidential library in Yorba Linda.

“I will probably turn the television on at some point each period (Wednesday) so they get a taste of what a body lying in state is like, and what it means to have people filing past,” said Sally Hibbitts, social studies teacher. “Since in our community I’m anticipating something similar in the future for former President Reagan, I think it’s important our students know what happens.”

Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, have requested to be buried on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley.

On Tuesday afternoon, as the funeral procession moved toward Yorba Linda, visitors to the Reagan library in Simi Valley added their names to the more than 2,600 already signed in a condolence book to be given to the Nixon family.

“I’ve always thought President Nixon got a bum rap from the media,” said Chuck Maass of Canoga Park, signing the book beneath a photo of Nixon. “What he did was certainly no worse than what the present officeholder has done.”

Adrienne Maitre of Placentia agreed.

“I think eventually you will see he didn’t do anything worse than anyone else,” said Maitre, who said she voted for him. “What the family needs to know is that people cared.”

Donald and Mary Brennan of West Hills said they drove to the Reagan library Tuesday especially to sign the book.

“He was our President, and he represented us, and we just feel bad at his passing,” Donald Brennan said.

Even a Nixon detractor signed the book, saying his own father’s terminal illness made him sympathetic to the Nixon family’s grief.

“I know President Nixon has done some crooked things,” said Bob Lamb of Urbana, Ill. “I have been holding a very bitter, bad taste in my mouth about what (Nixon) had done, but I feel now that things should be left alone.”

While the Reagan library will be closed today, the lobby will remain open at the Simi Valley facility so that visitors can sign the condolence book, said library spokeswoman Stefanie Salata.