Public events
Bales attended the December 26, 2006 – January 3, 2007 state funeral services and ceremonies for her father with her mother, and over the course of several days greeted mourners while President Ford's casket lay in state on the Lincoln catafalque in the Capitol Rotunda and during the public repose at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She read a passage from the Epistle of James during the funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral, and her daughter Tyne Berlanga offered one of the prayers during the funeral service at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids. In addition, on January 1, she assisted her mother in receiving dignitaries and official visitors who had come to Blair House, the presidential guest house in Washington, to pay their respects.
On January 16, 2007, Bales spoke at a naming ceremony at the Pentagon for the aircraft carrier CVN-78, which was officially named the Gerald R. Ford. That same day, Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced that Bales had been named the carrier's ceremonial sponsor. On November 14, 2009, Bales participated in the keel laying for the ship.
On June 11, 2007, she delivered remarks in Washington at the unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service's commemorative stamp honoring President Ford. In July 2007, Bales represented her mother at the funeral service of former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson; in the same month, she and her husband Vaden Bales represented Mrs. Ford and the Ford family at the naming of the Gerald R. Ford Post Office in Vail, Colorado.
On November 9, 2013, she christened the Gerald R. Ford with a bottle of sparkling water.
On April 8, 2016, during a change of command ceremony aboard USS Gerald R. Ford and in recognition of her "extraordinary service as CVN 78 Ship Sponsor", she was named an honorary naval aviator by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson, thus becoming only the 31st person to receive this honor, and the first woman ever to be so honored. The ship was commissioned as USS Gerald R. Ford on July 22, 2017, with Bales in attendance to give the order, "Man our ship, and bring her to life."
In 2018, Bales represented the Ford family at the funerals of President George H.W. and First Lady Barbara Bush.
