Some honored veterans will soon be let out to pasture. The U.S. Army has announced plans to dramatically scale back its Military Working Equid program. 141 of the 236 horses, donkeys, and mules who work for the U.S. military, mostly in ceremonial processions, are being put up for adoption.
Those four-legged troopers "are part of the Army family," Army spokesperson Steve Warren told reporters. "We're going to treat them with compassion."
U.S. Army horses have not been deployed in combat since the 26th Cavalry Regiment led a mounted charge in the Battle of Bataan in 1942. (A dozen Green Berets did ride on horseback during the war in Afghanistan, but they were supplied by their Afghan allies, the Northern Alliance.)
Yet a horse who serves their country is no less vital when their service is mostly ceremonial — in parades, honor guards, and funerals.
"The horses were never just horses," Captain Lydia Laga, a public affairs officer for the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, wrote in The Military Times. "They were part of a living, breathing connection to American military heritage, bridges to a time when thundering hooves marked both ceremony and strategy... a piece of Army culture that stood defiantly in contrast to the digital age."
I have been to military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, sometimes as a reporter, sometimes as a mourner. There is something extraordinary and eloquent in seeing horses pull the caisson that bears the casket of a fallen soldier, under the folds of the stars and stripes.
The clop of the horse's hooves is a kind of muted drumroll. The horses, so beautifully trained, are elegant and stately.
Their presence seems a symbol. Soldiers may serve at different ranks, and over different decades. But whether the deceased was a four-star general, or long-retired infantryman who came under fire in battles long ago, the U.S. Army, and the American people, memorialize their service with the same respect and ritual: Army horses bring them to a final rest.
Paring back the Working Equid program should save the Army about $2 million a year — out of an annual budget of more than $185 billion. But they will continue to keep ceremonial animals at Arlington National Cemetery and Joint Base San Antonio. Those horses will continue to serve as only they can.
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