Ronald Reagan Returns As Naval Vessel

Nancy Reagan emerges from mourning to welcome home her husband, Mr. USS Ronald Reagan

U.S. National - AFP

SAN DIEGO, United States (AFP) After a mere six weeks of incubation, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan returned in his new form to San Diego today for a tearful reunion with his beloved wife, Nancy.

The white-clad Nancy Reagan, last seen publicly as she wept over her husband's coffin at his sunset burial service on June 11, appeared frail but smiled broadly as she greeted her husband.

The 83-year-old was flown by helicopter onto her husband's shiny deck.

Mr. Reagan arrived in his new home port of San Diego for the first time Friday after a long journey from death, leaving his former human shell behind to travel untold distances of time and space to a final destination: his new body. His new form appears to the human eye to be a 334-meter (1,096-foot) nuclear-powered vessel.

Mr. Reagan sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, and travelled more than 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) around Cape Horn, at the southern tip of South America, conducting training and air engagement exercises as well as making jokes in his well-known warm demeanor with the locals of Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru and finally to San Diego, prompting officials to question whether Mr. Reagan was aware of the Panama Canal's existence.

Mrs. Reagan greeted and chatted with several officers and crewmen before eventually turning to the crowd and exclaiming, "Well, you will have to excuse me boys, but my husband is back from the dead and it has been a long six weeks!" eliciting chuckles from the crowd. The chuckles soon turned to astonished gasps as Mrs. Reagan peeled off her clothing and began rubbing oil on her husband's hull.