DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Former president Jimmy Carter remains at home in Plains, Georgia on Wednesday, receiving hospice care.
The 39th president decided to stop receiving medical care after a series of hospital stays. Carter is 98 years old, and he is the oldest living former U.S. president.
Here in the Miami Valley, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is looking back on the Air Force’s role in Carter’s presidency.
The museum has several pieces of history on display in their presidential gallery, including a replica of one of the planes that Carter flew on while he was president.
“First of all, his trip to Vienna in 1979 to sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty,” Doug Lantry, Museum Historian and Curator, said of Carter’s use of the Sam 27000 plane.
“Carter was working at the time to reduce the nuclear danger in the world. Executing that treaty, getting it signed, was a landmark in strategic arms limitation. Other trips that come to mind are trips to the Middle East to work for peace. He traveled to Israel and to Egypt, trying to get these two completely different agendas, ideologies, points of view together to bring about a more peaceful Middle East. This eventually resulted in the Camp David Accords. Long after Carter’s presidency, he continued to work for these things in the world and eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his continuing efforts.”
The exhibit also features a jacket that the Presidential Airlift group members wore.
“We have one of those on exhibit, and the person who donated that jacket spent a lot of time with President Carter aboard Sam 27000. You can see that jacket on display here.”
The museum has seen a recent increase in visitors interested in the gallery both due to the recent news of Carter’s hospice care and President’s Day.
