A horse-drawn procession carried President Jimmy Carter's remains to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday during his state funeral, marking the first time the troubled unit has been used since the Army announced its suspension nearly two years ago.
The Caisson Platoon, a specialized element in the Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, transports the remains of fallen service members and veterans to their final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.
The unit came under public scrutiny in 2022 when CNN reported that two horses had died within days of each other, highlighting substandard living conditions and neglect within the unit. By December of that year, two more horses died, and in April 2023 the Army suspended the program -- initially for 45 days, but now it continues to remain sidelined with no restart date.
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The Army has been working to improve the horses' living conditions by bettering their feed, reducing instances of parasites, refining their work schedules, revamping soldier training, procuring new horses, renovating facilities, acquiring additional land and funneling money into the program -- elements that were neglected for years, according to service officials.
"Essentially, we have had to completely restart our program," Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp, the commander of the Army's Military District of Washington/Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, said in a congressional hearing in November.
During that hearing, Bredenkamp also said that "our first priority is to ensure that we have a caisson squad capable of conducting a state funeral. That is our main requirement upon the death of a U.S. president, if requested by the family to provide that support."
That priority came to fruition this week after Jimmy Carter, the 39th president who lived to be 100 years old and was a Navy veteran, died Dec. 29. An Army official confirmed to Military.com on Tuesday that this was the first funeral procession for the caisson detachment since the April 2023 suspension.
"Every president is offered a caisson procession; however, it is each president's decision on whether to include one in their funeral plans," Lt. Col. Patrick Husted, a spokesperson for MDW/JTF National Capital Region, said in an email to Military.com on Tuesday. "The inclusion of a caisson was a desire of former President Jimmy Carter. The caisson detachment is trained and ready to execute this mission in support of the state funeral."
The CNN report, which a recent Rand Corp. study said "brought widespread attention" to the problem in 2022, said that two horses had died within 96 hours of each other, with one having 44 pounds of gravel found in its gut upon necropsy. But the study said those problems went back years: Between 2014 and 2022, nine horses died of gravel impaction, an indication of "long-term gaps in veterinary care and oversight of horse nutrition and feeding," according to Rand.
Poorly maintained and limited space also contributed to the decline of the herd. At one point, the 60-plus horse herd was living in less than 20% of the recommended area for equine use, with dilapidated paddocks and structures being a prominent feature at Forts Myer and Belvoir, where the horses lived. Since then, the unit has retired roughly 40 horses, officials said, significantly reducing the load on that limited space as the Army looks to buy more land.
Training of personnel had also deteriorated, and officials have eyed creating a specific military occupational specialty to create more stability in horse care as the widespread use of military equids has withered over the centuries.
"The challenges facing our program did not manifest themselves in just the last couple of years," Bredenkamp told Congress in November. "They evolved over a long period of time due to deteriorating facilities, reduced pasture and turnout, resource constraints and the atrophying of basic equine skills once resident in a larger portion of our Army."
Despite congressional and public pressure, the Army has declined to say when the service will resume in full, with officials stating that they are taking a "conditions-based" approach to rehabilitating the program. The Washington Post reported that the suspension will likely last through the summer.
Around the time of the two horse deaths in 2022, the unit was working under a budget of roughly $1 million, an amount the Rand study categorized as a "low funding priority" in the Army. Since then, the Military District of Washington has received millions more in funding, according to the study; for fiscal 2025, the service requested an additional $6.2 million with plans to request similar amounts through 2030, resulting in a total of roughly $31 million.
Meanwhile, dozens of families are awaiting the return of the caisson service to lay their loved ones to rest.
In April, the Army and Arlington officials said that no families were awaiting services amid the suspension. The following month, Military.com reported that 66 families were waiting in limbo, having to make difficult decisions on how and when to honor their veteran loved ones. The Washington Post reported that, as of December, 29 families were now waiting.
"The caisson detachment is trained and ready to perform their mission for former President Carter's state funeral," Husted said. "This operation does not detract from continued progress to achieve the requirements for the caisson detachment to return to Arlington National Cemetery in accordance with the criteria outlined" in the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.
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