Add up their years: 379 to be exact, enough time to take you back into the mid-1600s, when the notion of the American nation was still more than a century away.Consider why they were there: to bid farewell to a member of their fraternity who was the last of his generation and whose own life began just a few years after World War I's ashes stopped smoldering.

President Jimmy Carter 's state funeral in Washington on Thursday was a solute his political legacy, worldwide humanitarian work and commitment to faith. The service marked a rare joint appearance of the current and former commanders-in-chief,