Army Major GeneralPhilip C. Wehle was the Commanding General of theMilitary District of Washington during those state funerals, except for LBJ. For Johnson, it was Army Major GeneralJames Bradshaw Adamson served as commanding general. It was just after that funeral Black Jack was retired.[9]
Black Jack died after a 29-year military career on February 6, 1976. He was cremated, with his remains laid to rest with full military honors in a plot atFort Myer,Virginia, on Summerall Field; his final resting place lies 200 feet (60 m) northeast of theflagpole in the southeast corner of theparade field.
^Black Jack's exact breeding and pedigree is unknown due to some U.S. Army Remount sites only keeping records of "dead horses", but several sources list him as a "Morgan/American Quarter Horse mix", possibly sired by a Morgan stallion on loan from the U.S. Morgan Horse Farm, now the University of Vermont Morgan Horse Farm. By 1941, there were only 15 Morgan stallions being used by the U.S. Army Remount Service, according to 'The Morgan Horse Bulletin'. However, no Morgan stallions were recorded in Oklahoma or at Fort Reno at that time; three (3) Morgan stallions were recorded as being used by the Remount Service at Fort Riley, Kansas. Article 'The Remount Morgans of Fort Robinson' by Merideth M. Sears also states the following, based on archival documents from the Fort Robinson Nebraska Historical Site: "Morgan remount studs...were not well-accepted by the military hierarchy. [...] One [reason] was that the military was used to the fast, early maturity of the Thoroughbred breed, and did not realize that Morgans can take up to five years to fully develop...they were 'too small'... [...] Horses...were not generally bred to blooded, registered horses, but to grade mares, ranging from crossbred draft mares to Arabians." Black Jack's height, color, conformation, and temperament also match records of many Morgan stallions used at Fort Robinson.
^Some sources list Black Jack as having been named for U.S. Army General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, but this could be confusion with "General Pershing", who was "a large black Morgan stallion standing 15 3/4 hands tall and foaled in Iowa in 1930", and who was also named for John J. Pershing, according to the American Morgan Horse Association.
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