The dark shapes of seven horses came into view across Section 62 at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday morning, returning to the hallowed grounds the sounds of clopping, huffing and the turn of wheels that had gone virtually unheard there for the last two years.
The Army's Caisson Detachment, a ceremonial horse unit that transports veterans and service members to their final resting places at the cemetery, escorted the remains of a service member who died in 1942 after being captured by the Japanese during World War II.
Pvt. Bernard Curran, who was buried alongside other deceased prisoners of war in "Common Grave 723" in the Philippines, was identified last year by the military, and the ceremony that marked his final return to the U.S. also ended the detachment's hiatus following a massive overhaul of the program after two horses died in 2022 due poor living conditions.
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"As far as actually doing the funeral itself, it was just like we picked up from two years ago and ran right through it," said Sgt. Daimien Copeland, a team leader with the caisson unit who participated in the ceremony. "Everything in between these last two years has just been a large expansion and growth for us inside here. But when you actually do it, it looked and felt exactly the same."
Copeland has been part of The Old Guard, or 3rd Infantry Regiment, located at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, since 2022 -- so he, and other members of the unit Military.com interviewed Monday, have seen the changes to the program firsthand.
In 2022, CNN reported that the caisson herd was consuming poor-quality feed and living in unsanitary conditions after two horses died within 96 hours of each other that February, citing an internal Army report. Within the year, two more horses died.
The horses, half of whom were considered "geriatric" at the time, were turned out in lots that had nearly two feet of mud and excrement; consumed dusty, sometimes moldy hay; had moderate to high levels of sediment and parasites found in their stool; and were limited to less than 20% of the recommended acreage for herds of that size, the report found.
After two years and millions more dollars in funding, the Army says that it has dramatically revamped the program, from training new soldiers in a now-12-week Basic Horsemanship Course, to retiring older horses and purchasing younger ones, to expanding stalls and transporting the roughly 60-horse herd for rest cycles at an equestrian wellness facility that boasts more than 40 acres of land and aqua treadmills just west of Arlington.
The unit also upgraded to custom-fitted tack and saddles; replaced the actual caisson, the wheeled-cart the horses pull behind them, with a much lighter model; and tapped into the vast network of civilian equine experts across the country to dial in feed, supplements, training and other facets of horse care that continue even after soldiers have gone through the initial horse training.
The structure of the unit has changed, too, with additional veterinary support and civilian experts brought onto the team. Once called the Caisson Platoon and led by a junior officer, it is now referred to as a detachment and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel.
Lt. Col. Jason Crawford, an Army veterinarian with a background in rodeo, took on that mantle in March and said that the reintroduction of the caisson unit on Monday marked a limited return as the unit continues to assess the progress it has made.
"The biggest thing is our horse health," he said. For now, the horses will conduct two morning funerals per day, and the health of the herd "really drives everything else on both our training aspect as well as our facilities aspect."
Crawford said that feed vendors test their product before it comes to the unit, but the caisson also periodically tests samples of the food to ensure that it is up to snuff. Of the lot covered in waste and mud CNN reported on in 2022, Crawford said "that thing is gone."
The Army expanded its basic equestrian training from 10 weeks to 12 weeks, and now offers an advanced course to fine-tune riding styles and procedures. Crawford said that, while not a requirement for the team, it is looking for soldiers with prior horse experience, and the caisson is working to streamline some of its processes, such as recruiting and experience, by modeling itself after other units across the Army.
The Caisson Detachment escorted the remains of President Jimmy Carter in January through Washington, D.C., marking the first official time it had been used since its suspension.
But Curran's ceremony Monday morning was a watermark for a more full return of the program at Arlington, and soldiers rose early to prepare the horses, shine the caisson and touch up the tack so the Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient could be laid to rest with full military honors. Later that day, Military.com saw soldiers with the caisson unit cleaning the stables, washing the horses and taking them out for a trot outside in the mild, sunny spring afternoon.
"The biggest thing that I personally think that they [soldiers] have to have here is a care for them," Copeland said, gesturing to one of the horses in a stall, "a passion to want to be around them, to take care of them and learn from the horses themselves. They're our biggest teachers."
