Army's 'Old Guard' blacksmith forges 3 decades of service
By Bob Kovach and Bethany Chamberland
CNN Washington Bureau
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ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Monday is Pete Cote's final Memorial Day as the chief civilian blacksmith for Army horses used at Arlington National Cemetery.
Cote is retiring after more than three decades of preparing horses for cemetery caissons -- from the Vietnam War to the Persian Gulf War through the war in Iraq.
At Fort Myer, Virginia, home of the Army's so-called "Old Guard" unit -- the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment -- Cote's farrier shop greets visitors with the smell of burning coal and the sound of hammer on steel.
"Everybody wants a job that they enjoy," Cote says. "And about 90 percent of the people do not have that type of job I've got -- a job that I absolutely love."
He takes pride in his role with the military. "I'm also helping the nation and serving the country -- helping the fallen heroes go to their final resting place," he says.
Cote's horses have taken part in services for former President Lyndon Johnson in 1973, renowned Army commander Gen. Omar Bradley in 1981 and last year, former President Ronald Reagan. Before becoming the Army's blacksmith, Cote served as an Army heavy artilleryman. But his intense love of working with horses spurred him to try for an equestrian deployment. Cote repeatedly sent letters to Pentagon officials requesting an Army placement with horses.
His persistence paid off and Cote received orders to transfer to Fort Myer to help the Army's ceremonial Old Guard regiment with its horses. Later he left the Army and was hired to remain as a civilian farrier and blacksmith.
Cote's job hasn't come without aches and pains. In addition to various back and knee injuries, he suffered a broken jaw, nose, and a collapsed lung when a horse fell on him. "It's a hazardous duty, but I'm not classified as a hazardous duty," he says.
When he retires next month, a plaque will be placed inside the Old Guard farrier shop honoring Cote's decades of service and an estimated 2 million horseshoes he's hammered there -- not far from the cemetery where so many fallen soldiers have been laid to rest.
