A long-overdue honor

As veterans are escorted to their final rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., they are carried by a team of horses run by the men of the Caisson Platoon of the Old Guard. Located at Fort Myer, which abuts to those hallowed grounds, these men awake at 3:30 each morning to go to the barn, wash the horses, prepare the tack (which often takes hours to perfect) and then participate in roughly eight funerals a day.

While not an entirely thankless job, these men seldom get sufficient recognition for a job they do so well. Recently, with the help of The American Legion and others, the Caisson Platoon at long last received a tangible sign of thanks.

“When I was going through training with many of you, I kept a little green book where I would write down things I wanted to do differently for the organization, and one of those things was the Caisson Platoon coin” said Lt. Dan Nicolosi, the platoon commander for the Caisson Platoon. Little did he know at the time that Leta Carruth, a long-time civilian supporter of the platoon, was working on getting those very coins. Carruth had previously arranged with The American Legion to provide Carhartt cold weather gear to the Caisson platoon, and once again turned to the Legion to aid her in this initiative.

Military challenge coins are usually a coin or medallion bearing the units crest of insignia and are collected by members of the unit and others who provide some service or deserve some special merit. The Caisson Coin developed by Carruth and paid for with funds raised under a special fundraiser done by the military blog “This Ain’t Hell” featured a roughly 5-inch long horseshoe with a horse in the middle. This coin also has etchings along the shoe that have “The Old Guard” written on one side and “United States Army Caisson Platoon” on the obverse.

On hand to present the coins were Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ryan Pitts, a Legionnaire from the Department of New Hampshire, and Legion Legislative Commission Chairman Brett Reistad, a former member of the Old Guard. Pitts was overjoyed at the opportunity to visit the Old Guard and present the coins, as it allowed him an opportunity to visit his first sergeant from when he earned his Medal of Honor in Afghanistan. On the day after the presentation, Command Sgt. Maj. Scott Beeson took his place as the 31st Regimental Command Sergeant Major of the Old Guard.

Legislative Commission Chairman Brett Reistad, a member of the Department of Virginia, presented the coins on behalf of The American Legion.

“I appreciate every opportunity I get to recognize our nation’s warriors” Reistad said. “This is what The American Legion is all about. We can never repay them for their sacrifices, but we can take the time to recognize them and let them know we care.”