Online Exhibits

On the evening of Monday, November 1, 1976, Air Force One, dubbed The Spirit of ’76 in this the nation’s Bicentennial year, touched down at Kent County Airport.Following a hard day of campaigning in Ohio and Detroit, the President of the United States and the First Lady had returned home to cast their votes the next day in an election that would decide whether he would continue serving as President for the next four years. As recently as three years before, it was an election neither had contemplated.

Presidential leadership is often defined by decisions made during a crisis, showcasing a President’s personal character, resolve, fortitude, and strength. President Ford faced such a crisis in May 1975, during what he later called one of the “tensest moments” of his Presidency.

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When Judge John Sirica gaveled the trial of the Watergate seven to order on January 8, 1973, federal investigators had already discovered a covert slush fund used to underwrite nefarious activities against Democrats. The money and the men on trial could be linked to the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP) at whose head sat the former Attorney General of the United States, and President Nixon’s former law partner, John Mitchell. At the trial, E. Howard Hunt, who had planned the break-in, and four of the burglars pleaded guilty. G. Gordon Liddy, who helped in the planning, and James McCord, the other burglar, refused to cooperate, were convicted of various charges, and sentenced to prison.

The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) will be the largest, most powerful warship the world has ever seen - ten times larger than the USS Langley (CV 1), America's first aircraft carrier. The Ford will define a new class of these capital ships, more dynamic, more capable than any that has sailed before her. Yet the legacy of her predecessors dating back nearly a century can be seen in her lines and courses through her steel.