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USA Today
09-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Horse-drawn Army caissons to roll again for funerals at Arlington National Cemetery
Horse-drawn Army caissons to roll again for funerals at Arlington National Cemetery Show Caption Hide Caption Trump pays respects to Carter, first Capitol Hill visit since Jan 6 U.S. President-elect Donald Trump visited the Capitol Rotunda on to pay respects to the late President Jimmy Carter. The Army's caisson detatchment was worn down by too many funerals, underinvestment and poor care. The Army euthanized two horses, Mickey and Tony, and in 2023 the rest were retired to Florida. By June, the Army plans to have three squads trained for funeral ceremony duty. Each squad will have 11 horses. WASHINGTON − The Army announced Tuesday that it will resume using horse-drawn caissons for a limited number of funerals at Arlington National Cemetery this summer, three years after it suspended the tradition following the deaths of two of its horses. Beginning the week of June 2, soldiers, their horses and the caisson will carry caskets for two funerals a day and a maximum of 10 per week. Caissons are wagons that had been used to carry artillery to the front and fallen soldiers from combat. At Fort Myer, adjacent to the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, the caisson detachment had been performing the solemn, stately ceremony since 1948. More: Disappearing DEI or history? Information taken off Arlington National Cemetery site By 2022, behind the spit-polish sheen of soldiers, horses and carriages, however, the unit had been worn down by too many funerals, underinvestment and poor care. The Army euthanized two of the horses, Mickey and Tony, after sand and gravel had damaged their guts. The caissons stopped rolling in 2023, and the remaining horses retired to Florida. The Army 'pulled out all the stops' to ensure the new caisson detachment has new horses, custom gear and expert training needed to conduct the ceremony safely, Army Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp, commanding general of Joint Task-Force National Capital Region and the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, told reporters. In 2022, the Army spent about $1.2 million on operations and maintenance for the caisson detachment, Bredenkamp said. This year it will spend about $10 million. By June, the Army plans to have three squads trained for funeral ceremony duty. Each squad will have 11 horses, Bredenkamp said. In a squad, a soldier rides one horse in the lead, six horses pull the caisson wagon, and a riderless horse follows. The remaining horses in the squad will be held in reserve. The squads will rotate funeral duty to maintain their health. There is demand for 30 horse-drawn caisson funerals per week. Ultimately, the Army plans to grow its herd to about 100 horses, he said, enough for seven squads and backup horses. Those eligible for the revived caisson program include troops killed in action, recipients of the Medal of Honor and the 25 service members whose family members have waited two years for the service to begin again, said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of the Office of Army Cemeteries and Army National Military Cemeteries. As always, the caisson detachment has an overriding mission: Carrying the body of deceased presidents, if they choose. Former President Jimmy Carter did so for his ceremony in January. 'The caisson represents a powerful symbol of service, sacrifice and remembrance,' Bredenkamp said. 'We will continue to honor those who have bravely served in our armed forces, and we look forward to seeing the caisson once again grace the grounds of our hallowed cemetery.'
Washington Post
08-04-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Army to resume horse-drawn caissons for funerals at Arlington Cemetery
The Army said Tuesday that it was partially resuming its horse-drawn caisson program for funerals in Arlington National Cemetery, three years after an investigation found that neglectful treatment of horses had contributed to a spate of equine deaths. Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp said the resumption comes after a complete overhaul of the program, in which certain deceased service members are conveyed to their graves in horse-drawn artillery wagons, or caissons. Funding was boosted, Bredenkamp said. Soldier horsemanship training was revised. Custom-made saddles were acquired for the horses. And the weight of the old caissons was reduced. 'We had to basically reinvent the way we were doing these things,' Bredenkamp, commanding general of Joint Task-Force National Capital Region and the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, said in a phone news briefing. The caisson service, long a fixture at the historic cemetery just outside Washington, was suspended in 2023, stemming from the earlier deaths of four Army horses and reports of poor conditions in the Army stables and inexperienced staff. The solemn tradition of bearing the dead on a caisson is tied to the battlefield role of the wagons as they delivered supplies to the front lines and returned with dead and wounded soldiers, according to the Military District of Washington website. Horse-drawn caissons are often used during state funerals, such as the rites for President Jimmy Carter in January. His casket was carried up Capitol Hill by the first of the new caisson units the Army is training, Bredenkamp said. Perhaps the most memorable use of the horse-drawn caisson was during the 1963 funeral of President John F. Kennedy, which was watched by millions of people on television. The cemetery caisson service will resume on a limited basis starting the week of June 2, but horse teams and personnel will start getting used to moving through the cemetery later this month, the Army said in a statement. The service will increase as the Army acquires more horses and trains more soldiers for the program. Problems with the caisson unit first came into public view in 2022, when an Army investigation found the horses' living conditions in stables neglectful, contributing to four equine deaths. A later report put the horse death toll at 11 over an eight-year period. Other reports found horses bore scars from ill-fitted tack, too tight for their bodies. The investigation determined that the overworked horses lived in cramped stalls and paddocks, and were given contaminated feed. A necropsy of one horse found 44 pounds of gravel in its gut, a result of unsanitary living conditions. After a year of physical rehabilitation efforts for the roughly five dozen horses the investigation centered on, all were quietly retired, too old and too broken to continue working. Not all funerals in Arlington get a caisson. In general, those eligible include service members killed in action, recipients of the Medal of Honor or the Prisoner of War Medal, senior noncommissioned officers, senior warrant officers and senior commissioned officers, the Army said. Bredenkamp said funding for the program went from about $1.2 million a year in 2022 to about $10 million now. He said the program now has 46 horses, many of which have been acquired since last summer. He said even though the caissons are much lighter now, the Army is looking for a more modern caisson for the future.
