Vet broke horses for Army

A few months shy of his 90th birthday, Ed Bieganski of Chadron can still fit into his military uniform. In fact, he still does it when called upon to serve. While much of the nation’s focus has been on “The Greatest Generation” — veterans of World War II — Bieganski’s service began even before then. He served in the Remount Detachment Unit at Fort Robinson, enlisting in 1938 at age 18. At the time of his enlistment, Fort Robinson had approximately 120 soldiers. But during World War II more than 400 soldiers and 8,000 to 10,000 horses made their way to the station. The fort served as a supply point for horses, which were still used in warfare, and Bieganski’s duties involved classifying and riding the horses until they were reasonably broke — with an emphasis on reasonably. “Sometimes the horses were still pretty wild,” Bieganski said with a laugh. The Remount Division was supplied with mares from ranchers from Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado, and stallions were purchased from racetracks. Often the stallions were leased to area ranchers and then the fort would purchase the offspring. The Remount Division was particular about using only bay or sorrel horses and straying away from gray, white and black horses to avoid drawing attention to the soldiers. Classifying the horses required documentation, such as pedigree, height and weight, and every horse and its file were numbered, and the horses were branded with their file number for identification. Toward the end of the war, horses were no longer needed. They were auctioned off in 1947 before the closing of the fort in 1948...read more