TRANSFERRING POWER AND THE TRAPPINGS OF OFFICE

AIR FORCE ONE IS TEMPORARILY RENAMED, PHOTOS ARE SWITCHED AND A 'FOOTBALL' IS PASSED

Presidential power will pass invisibly from Ronald Reagan to George Bush at noon today. That transfer brings with it not only awesome responsibility but more than a few trappings of office as well.

In the background of the inaugural stand, a military aide holding the satchel containing the code words needed to launch a nuclear strike will automatically turn to George Bush. After being carried to the Capitol with President Reagan and following him closely until the oath of office is administered, the satchel will become Bush's at noon and will follow him for the rest of his term.

Reagan will walk to his helicopter for the first time in eight years without the "football," as the satchel is called. After a farewell aerial tour of downtown Washington, Reagan will fly from Andrews Air Force Base to California.

Air Force One, carrying private citizen Reagan, will be renamed SAM (for Special Air Mission) 2700 and have its radio call sign changed for the trip, according to the White House military office.

Meanwhile, President Bush will step into a new $600,000 limousine for the triumphal ride up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The Lincoln was ordered by the Secret Service five years ago and custom built in Wixom, Mich. It contains the latest in communications gear and armor and will be used for the first time by the new president for his inauguration.

At the White House, the Reagan photographs will be whisked off the walls while the inaugural ceremony is in progress and replaced by pictures of George Bush campaigning, a General Services Administration spokesman said.

On Sunday, when the White House photography office develops its inaugural pictures, they will be hung, according to the GSA.

Little will change in the White House living quarters, according to the office of the chief usher, except "we're bringing in a lot more beds."

The Bushes will have 21 relatives staying overnight after the inaugural balls.

Temporary green White House passes issued to about 245 Reagan White House aides will expire, cutting off the Reagan appointees' access to offices some of them have occupied for eight years. New Bush aides will gradually replace them.

The transfer of power, although invisible, is traditionally abrupt, even under the "friendly takeover" transition from Reagan to Bush.

Former White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan, in his book, "Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency," recounts a stark example of the not-so-friendly transition from President Carter to Reagan in 1981.

He describes calling the White House Situation Room for news about the release of the Iranian-held hostages as he waited to accompany Carter home to Plains, Georgia, shortly after Reagan took the oath of office.

"The person who answered the phone asked me to hold on for a minute," Jordan wrote. "He came back on and said he was sorry but the information was not available.

" 'But I'm calling on a secure phone,' I protested.

" 'That's not the problem, Mr. Jordan. Mr. Carter is no longer president, so classified information is no longer available to you.' "

Jordan wrote, "I understood that when we lost the presidency, the trappings of power went with it, but I hadn't expected the loss to be so immediate and complete."

But most of the 3,366 people who work in the White House will remain -- staffing the large military office, running the White House Communications Agency, processing paychecks, taking out the garbage and turning on the heat.

Although a new $300 million presidential plane will not be ready until November, Bush will inherit a new helicopter, a small "Huey" type that Reagan tried out last weekend on a flight to Camp David.

Around the country, physical evidence of the transfer of power will appear slowly in thousands of federal offices. Seven thousand pictures of President Bush paid for by the Republican National Committee will be shipped nationwide to replace the Reagan pictures on the walls of branch offices of the Social Security Administration, Small Business Administration, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation and other federal agencies. They will arrive in about a month.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.