REAGAN RIDES AGAIN AT MUSEUM EXHIBIT LIBRARY FOCUSES ON HIS U.S. CAVALRY SERVICE.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Most people know that Ronald Reagan had a lifelong love of horses, but few are aware he developed his riding skills as a lieutenant in the U.S. Cavalry.

An exhibit opening this month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library focuses on the unique link in Reagan's own life between the U.S. Cavalry and and the Old West portrayed in Hollywood's Western movies.

Reagan joined at the age of 24 and became the last president to serve in the U.S. Cavalry - following Andrew Jackson, James Polk, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The move also helped Reagan launch his movie career in Hollywood, which was looking for handsome horsemen in the 1930s and 1940s.

The story of the cavalry in U.S. history and in the Western movies comes together in the exhibit scheduled to open Saturday featuring rare photographs, guns and other artifacts from military, American-Indian and African-American history.

``Lieutenant Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Calvary'' tells the story of Second Lieutenant Reagan and chronicles how the cavalry became part of the nation's lore.

``Ronald Reagan represents both the real cavalryman and the romantic Hollywood image, and the exhibit brings it all together,'' said John P. Langellier, assistant director for the library and museum and an expert on the Old West.

``These photos (in the exhibit) are very rare. It's taken me 20 years to gather them,'' he said. ``I have written 30 books on the subject of the American West, and I know that we have in this room some better and rarer material than even the Smithsonian.''

The exhibit features all five U.S. presidents who served in the mounted service and other famous cavalrymen, including Robert E. Lee, George Patton, Jr., and George Custer, who Reagan portrayed in the 1940 film ``Santa Fe Trail.''

The exhibit features bugle calls and band music and a display that will allow children to climb on riding saddles, and even try on cavalry uniforms.

``The United States Cavalry is an important chapter in the story of our military and how our country evolved,'' said R. Duke Blackwood, executive director for the Ronald Reagan Library and Foundation. ``This exhibit provides a remarkable educational tool for parents and children to recapture a part of American history.''

The horse cavalry was disbanded in 1942, a casualty of America's entry into World War II. ``Horsepower replaced the horse,'' said Langellier.

The horse cavalry units disappeared and were replaced at first by jeeps and tanks and later by Humvees and helicopters.

The Army's horseless first Cavalry Division is currently in the Middle East. Custer's old regiment, the Seventh Cavalry, is part of the First Cavalry Division and helped spearhead the attack against Saddam Hussein.

The exhibit uses costumes and posters from films of John Wayne and Reagan to help bring the cavalry's story to life.

The showcases feature a variety of weapons from the Old West and photographs documenting some of the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, including a photo of the African-American soldiers firing an early machine gun.

Before 1916 the U.S. Cavalry maintained and patrolled America's national parks, and in 1903 African-American Capt. Charles Young became the first superintendent of Sequoia National Park.

A special section on Custer's Last Stand points out that some of the enlisted men with Custer had no training in combat and marksmanship and wound up easy prey for the Cheyenne and Sioux warriors at Little Bighorn. The exhibit explains how the debacle led to an overhaul of training procedures for the cavalry.

A number of exhibits focus on American Indians, including a photo of a Navajo pictograph showing Spaniards on horseback.

At the time, the Navajos had never seen men on horses, so they were recording what could be described as an alien sighting, said Langellier.

Another section shows how the Crow, Apache, Cheyenne and Sioux were eventually enlisted into the U.S. Cavalry.

The exhibit helps explain the importance of the horse in military history. Because the essence of the cavalry was hand-to-hand combat, horses were like the Humvees and helicopters of today.

One of the reasons Reagan selected the Simi Valley location for the presidential library was his fondness for horses and rural landscapes, and the library remains surrounded by open hillsides where residents of Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks ride horses today.

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in Simi edition only) Exhibit designer Rob Zucca of North Hollywood adjust the lights of a new cavalry showcase to open Saturday at the Reagan Presidential Library.

(2 -- ran in Simi edition only) Exhibit designers discuss lighting options for the upcoming ``Lieutenant Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Cavalry'' exhibit.

(3) A display case at the entrance to the exhibit holds replica clothing and equipment from the period when Ronald Reagan was a member of the U.S. Cavalry.

(4) Curator Thomas Thomas from Camarillo cleans the excess dirt from a prt of the calvary exhibit, which is scheduled to open June 18.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News