President ial library in College Station, texas. His casket making the final leg of the journey by train, with mourners paying their respects along the way. In honor of the president s military service, the navy will do a 21 Strike Fighter aircraft fly over. Well bring it to you as soon as it happens. Before his final ride to the lone star state, friends and family, including his close friend james baker and grandson george p bush, paid tribute to 41 in an emotional and moving funeral service. The world became a better place because george bush occupied the white house. He had a very effective way of letting me know when the discussion was over. [laughter] he would look at me and he would say baker, if you are so smart, why my president and you are no not . We rejoice, mr. President , that you are safely tucked in now. And through the ages with gods loving arms around you, because our glory, george, was to have had you as our president and as such a friend. Undoubtedly when the last words are written on him, they will certainly include this that the fulfillment of a complete life cannot be achieved without service to others. George Herbert Walker bush is the most gracious, most decent, most humble man that i will ever know. And its the honor of a lifetime to share his name. God bless you, gampy, until we meet again. Jesse we have seen the ceremonies over the week. Any reflections that youve had . My thing that struck me personally is the friendships that this man has endeared over the years. He was more than a president. He was a dear, dear friend all the people who worked with him and for him. Martha jon meacham said he was the last great soldier statesman. I think so much of our feelings about the greatest generation are wrapped up in this president , this 41st president of the United States, who represents to so many of us a generation that we have an understanding about our own families and we watch the passing of his president and all of the beautiful military components that have accompanied it. The incredible music. It gives you pause and makes you think about the life of, but because whenever someone like this passes, you think about where we stand as a country and what we care about and who we are and what it means to be an american. He gave us a potent reminder every day through his, as you say, his personal expression of the importance of friendship and family but also his enormous devotion to the United States of america and how he spent his life carrying out that mission. Jesse i know, juan, you covered him closely during a time period when he was president. One of the main themes i think everyones been discussing is how hard he worked and how much he packed into each day. If you just look at the one term, he accomplished so much in one term, from the clean air act, the civil rights act, americans with disabilities act, overseeing the end of the cold war, kicking Saddam Hussein out of kuwait. A massive amount of accomplishment for just four years. Juan i have such regard for him and i think one of the refrains that you hear about someone who was a good friend, so i was a very young White House Reporter at the washington post. One of my jobs was occasionally to take a ride with the Vice President. You can imagine at that time it was a very different washington in terms of the size of the press corps. It would be me, the secret service, and we would be on air force to come and we would be talking. I would go back and my wife would say how is your pal, Vice President bush. I would say he thinks earl hoovers strategy, we would Start Talking baseball. We talked a lot of baseball. We talked baseball for hours. He loved baseball. He was a great athlete. The thing that strikes me, listening to date to his grandson. I have to tell you as a grandfather how much it would mean to me to have a grandson get up there and not only say that his grandfather was a great guy but to talk about the idea that it wasnt just rhetoric. Sometimes you think kids look at you when you are talking and say oh, hes just talking. Hes just saying that stuff. He said when his grandfather talked about honor, duty, when he talked about love of country, he said it wasnt something he just talked about. This was something that he lived and offered as an example. To me, that plus the granddaughters that were there today, i cant tell you, jesse. I think when you go, they can have all the ceremonies they want, but if the people who knew you best love you, man, i dont think you can get better than that. Jesse we have seen such an outpouring of love, not just from his family and friends the people who worked for him. Amazing amount of just regular americans watching the train go by or visiting his casket in washington. Why dont we hear him in his own words, kennedy. This is him in 1988 when he was nominated to be the republican candidate for president in new orleans. Lets listen. For we are a nation of community, of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them very voluntary and unique. This is america, a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky. Kennedy and a broad and peaceful sky. The nice thing about this, its not only allowing us to pay tribute to the greatest generation that martha touched on, but this is an aspirational life. Its the kind of moment where you can reflect in your own life and say to yourself, how do i want people to remember me . Therefore, from this day forward, what will i do with my life . How will i go on this journey . How will i treat other people . How will i raise my children . How will i aim to inspire . How will i humbly ask for forgiveness . Its those kinds of things, and juan and i were talking about this last night. Its really a special moment for reflection as a country and for individuals. If theres something about that that we can carry forward, i think its an incredible accomplishment for this former president. Jesse i have been personally affected by it. The man is so humble, i am thinking to myself maybe i should be more humble. [laughter] greg too late, jesse. No one will believe it. Jesse okay, what do you say . Greg its an interesting thing to watch. I looked at the masses which were very moving, they talked about these things that are often mocked in contemporary pop culture. What were the things . Duty, honor, patriotism. God forbid, faith. Faith and god and family. These are kind of all the things that we are constantly reminded in our modern culture is corny. But when it comes down to it, when you are faced with mortality and the loss of somebody special, these are actually the things that matter more than hashtags and sarcasm and cynicism. And snark, you know what im saying . It is so easy to snark about traditional things, about family and religion, making fun. Its so oldfashioned and corny. But when it comes down to that moment in time where everything thats important, family, faith, duty, honor, sacrifice. Thats all anybody talks about. Its almost as though its biological. Jesse yeah, he came from a great family. Made sure his other family members, especially his sons, valued service and putting the country above the person. Now we are looking at the processional travel to the bush president ial library in College Station, texas. Lets listen to president president george h. W. Bush talking about in the state of the union, i believe it was 1991, the consequences of Saddam Hussein invading kuwait. Saddam husseins unprovoked invasion, his ruthless systematic rape of a peaceful nation violated everything the community of nations holds dear. The world has said this aggression would not stand, and it will not stand. Jesse if you think about modern military campaigns, martha, this was executed so perfectly with the International Coalition so firmly behind him. There were parades in america afterwards. There wasnt a lot of overreach. It was something that he believed so strongly in that after the cold war was finished, the United States was there to keep and maintain the peace. Martha its a great point, jesse. You look at the coalition he built. He spent his entire adult life essentially building that coalition. He was u. N. Ambassador, he was an ambassador to china. He worked on his relationships with people in a sincere way that had a lot of depth. Talking about the notes he would write to everybody. Thats meaningful. Its building networks, building friendships over time. I also think one of the great things about this man was his sincerity. He didnt appear to be working it just so that he could work it. I think everybody understands what i mean by that. Jesse truly a genuine people person. Unlike some people at the table. [laughter] talking about you, greg. Juan one my son was born, this is going back to you 88. I got a note from george h. W. Bush. I wasnt covering him at the time. This was right after the campaign. Here comes a note in the mail. I dont know how he knew about it. Im looking at these pictures, jesse, and im looking at these young men. I guess they are at texas a m, their brown uniforms. The way they are standing against that gloomy sky, so still, so respectful, so much a matter of precision in honoring our fallen president. Its absolutely inspiring. Its a thrill. We saw great show yesterday and the day before in washington. We had 4,000 members of the u. S. Military washington regional command take charge of it and it was written out. The whole thing. But here we are in texas, and i have more a sense of young people, young people oftentimes College People or people may be in the local rotc in College Station participating. I think for them, this is going to be a lifetime memory. Jesse lets go to alicia acuna they are on the in College Station, texas. Why dont you set the scene for us . Hi, we are awaiting the arrival here of the procession. It is just coming up right now up barbara bush drive. It will make its way in front of the george bush president ial library and museum. Per the request of the family, any moment now, i am going to stop talking because the family has requested we remain silent at this point, which we will do now. Jesse the processional goes into the bush president ial library. Alicia brought it up. Silence. I think this country has really reflected this last week. When you reflect, you office they are silent and you think and you think about a man who was so unifying and so wellrespected. As juan was mentioning, kennedy, it really is kind of the turning of a page from one generation to the next, not just with the bush family but about how we see our leadership in this country. I think people are understanding of what true leadership is in america. And its a beautiful thing. Kennedy its also interesting how we see time and time again throughout the generations in the elections, how their political pendulum swings. How it mustve been for george h. W. Bush, who live this exemplary life and then to lose a second term to someone who was such a nontraditional politician. Who didnt necessarily embody the same things in the same way that he did. The rest of his life was a reaction to that pendulum swing. We have just seen another one, a very opposite president elected after president obama and the nonvictor in that race has also taken time to reflect on a nonvictory and how vastly different those reactions can be. And how, if we are being completely honest, time has been very, very gracious to george h. W. Bush and his legacy and his long life and the choices hes made postpresidency only solidify that. Juan what strikes me for what you just said, kennedy, the note he wrote to clinton. Amazing. He said i am rooting hard for you. I am rooting for america. I can get over this. We dont see that kind of selfeffacing statement these days in our politics. Greg the point that you bring up, this is a guy who flew 58 combat missions. Helped end the cold war, company eight, ambassador, world war ii hero shot down and rescued. He was treated poorly in 92 because his life put him at a certain age. For those deeds to be accomplished, he was 68. We decided arbitrarily that 68 was a wrong number, that we were worried that was too old. Not anymore. 68 is young now. But back then, they were worried because bill clinton was seen as the young new coke. He was the fresh coke and this guy was old pepsi. It was such an injustice for what he had done in those four years i think and unfairly kind of dismissed over one single criteria and that was the year he was born. Kennedy dont know if you remember in the orange orangey register, conservative part of southern california, the Republican Community took out an entire newspaper page asking the president to not take dan quayle again with him as his vp choice going into the 1992 campaign. Juan done i spoke about loyalty that alan simpson talked about in yesterdays eulogy. He stayed loyal to dan quayle. Juan he sure did. Martha i believe this is reverend levinson from st. Martins episcopal. Hes been with president bush 41 since the moment he passed. He was with him during his final hours, praying with him, and has taken the journey to washington, d. C. We see things really coming full circle here. Something so romantic about watching the train as it moved its way across texas. That too touches a touchstone and all of us pretty think of abraham lincoln, dwight eisenhower. President ial caravans moving across the country in this open train. You can see the casket with the flag draped over it, and its just like a lifes journey and his own journey from connecticut, the elite schools he grew up in an across the small towns in texas where people came from all over waving their small flakes to pay tribute to this man who really adopted texas as his home and now is going back there to be buried. Now we see the bush family at the top of the stairs gathering. These are emotionally draining moments for families as they go through these kinds of long days of experience. Lets watch as they remove the casket from the hearse in texas. [star spangled banner plays] martha very moving. We just watch the final moments. We will not see the casket after this. The family is going inside for the private Burial Service as in the burial which will follow that. President george h. W. Bush will be laid to rest next to a barbara bush, his wife of 73 years, and robin, their young daughter who passed away the age of three. After suffering from leukemia. As we remember president bush 43 saying yesterday at the service at the National Cathedral, at the end of his very moving speech and the moment he broke down himself, he said he wanted to think of his father hugging robin and holding his mothers hand, barbara bush. This is the moment where we turn our attention away and we leave it to the privacy of the family. Its been such a moving ceremony as we watched all this be carried out over the last few days. Greg, as you said, there are people, there are cynics and those who sort of want to poke fun at some of the things he felt were so important. Faith obviously was one of those. As a society today, some people feel like they are above faith, too smart for faith. Heres a man who was so intelligent and who leaned on it completely. Greg what you notice in these ceremonies, even if you are not religious, and i am not religious, we see the value and importance that religion is providing. Its about people coming together every day, knowing the people that you live within the people in your community who you see every sunday or more frequently. Its something people, there are people who are agnostic who understand completely the value of religion and you see it in events like this, how important faith is, sharing it with your family. Its incredibly moving to c. Juan the grandson said today, he said his grandfather told him god loves us all, but there is a price to gods love. We have to be good to one another. You hear Something Like that you think thats just the old guy talking. But the way george p bush, the grandson, spoke today, you can tell it went to his heart. It meant the world to him that his grandfather was communicating the power, i was thinking power of god, but i think its the power of faith across generations that says this binds us, and im not leaving. I am here with you. That goes back to himself jesus himself. The other thing i wanted to mention was apparently he said that on his gravestone all he wanted was his navy number, his identification number. Basically his tags. The inscription that he loved barbara very much. How appropriate that hes going to be next to his sweetheart. Jesse its remarkable how all the members of the bush family have really come to this moment in such a graceful and beautiful way, if you think about the grandchildren and the sons and daughters. Everyone has really risen to the occasion. Its got to be so heartbreaking for all of them, but to be in the public spotlight when your father, your grandfather, or your relative passes away in such a public way and to be able to carry yourself with so much dignity and grace. Not just in the words weve heard but in the way that everybody has just walked and been in the moment. The flawless execution of the ceremony has also been remarkable. If you think about how important ceremony as a subject is to this country, this is done at the highest level, a president ial funeral. Its gone on for many, many days. And its been so well scripted and so well executed, and its so amazing to watch the flawless execution of the ceremony. The music playing. It really gives you the chills and it makes you think it makes you reflect. I think 41, from what ive heard, kennedy, had a hand and a lot of the scripting of the ceremony eight and you can see it play out so perfectly. Kennedy the details show how important tradition is to him and to the family. Theres a great deal of restraint and humility and a lot of the pictures speak for themselves. He mustve anticipated how that train ride would look in the message it would send, because its slower. Its more deliberate. You have to be in the moment. Some of the people coming out to greet the train, it reminded me one president reagan passed as he made his way from the funeral home to the Reagan Library in simi valley. People rushed onto overpasses if they could get a final glimpse and in some way pay their respects. I look at these things and i think what can people internalize in their own lives . This is a good time for you to talk with your family a