America's Response Monument

The artist, Douwe Blumberg, had been a horse trainer for 18 years and is a military history buff. As part of Operation Enduring Freedom, President George W. Bush sent covert forces into Afghanistan to help the Northern Alliance defeat the Taliban. The group, named Task Force Dagger, was a joint Special Operations team consisting of Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group, aircrew members from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ("Nightstalkers"), and Air Force Combat Controllers. Flight into Afghanistan The 12-man Operational Detachment Alpha 595 (ODA 595) team, along with two Air Force combat controllers, were the second group of Task Force Dagger to enter Afghanistan. In the first operation of its kind, they were flown from a former Soviet airbase, now named the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, in Uzbekistan. about south of Mazar-i-Sharif in the Dari-a-Souf Valley. The team arrived only 39 days after the Al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center for what they thought would be a year-long stay. They linked up with the Northern Alliance, led by General Dostum. Horseback transportation Once they arrived in-country, they needed transportation suitable for the difficult mountainous terrain of Northern Afghanistan. The Afghan tribes offered the men the only transportation available: small Afghan horses. Only two men had any experience on horseback. Capt. Mark Nutsch, commander of ODA-595, who grew up on a ranch riding horses, gave quick lessons to the others. The last troops to receive training on horseback were the 28th Cavalry in 1943. Initial attack against the Taliban On October 21, the Northern Alliance led by General Dostum prepared to attack the fortified village of Bishqab, defended by the Taliban and equipped with several T-54/55 tanks, a number of BMPs (armored personnel carriers) armed with cannons and machine guns, and several ZSU-23 anti-aircraft artillery pieces. The Northern Alliance totaled about 1,500 cavalry and 1,500 light infantry. They were assisted by the 12-member U.S. Special Forces team and American air power. To reach the enemy, they crossed a mile-wide open plain cut by seven ridges that would leave them completely exposed to enemy fire. To the U.S. Special Forces, it looked like the Charge of the Light Brigade, Battle of Fredericksburg, and Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, all at the same time. Soldier photo During a news conference on November 15, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld displayed a photo of ODA 595 riding across a field on Afghan horses. When sculptor Blumberg saw that image, he said he was "riveted" and felt impressed that he had to do something. "The visual irony of a 21st-century, high-tech trooper mounted on a ragged Afghan mountain horse, unchanged for centuries, fascinated me." Despite the array of high-tech military gear they carried into battle, it was the trusty Afghan stallions that were essential to the campaign's success. The mounted US troops became known as the "horse soldiers". == Production ==

Initial design Staff Sgt. Bart Decker on an Afghan horse was a model for Blumberg when he began to design the statue. Decker rode with the U.S. Special Operations teams and Northern Alliance forces during the opening days of Operation Enduring Freedom. After seeing the photo of the modern soldiers on horseback, Blumberg decided to create a statue to commemorate the actions of the service members of America's Special Operations who responded to the September 11 attacks, including the Special Operations forces who fought in the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom. On his own initiative and expense, Blumberg took three months to complete a 1:6 scale, tall bronze sculpture of a Green Beret riding an Afghan horse. In 2002, while at a show in Louisville, Kentucky, he brought the work in progress with him. A Vietnam-era Green Beret saw the work and told Lt. Col. Frank Hudson from the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell about the statue, who called Blumberg. Blumberg sent him pictures of the work. Hudson saw a number of inconsistencies between the statue and the reality of what happened in the field. Blumberg cast 120 18-inch (460 mm) pieces for sale to the public and another 120 for sale to members of the special forces. In 2003, the non-profit Foundation for US Historical Monuments was formed to help build a monumental version, but their efforts came to nothing. The Gary Sinise Foundation and the Green Beret Foundation supported the effort to build the monument. No public funds were used. Blumberg lives in DeMossville, Kentucky. However, much of the work on the bronze monument was done by the Crucible Foundry in Norman, Oklahoma, a full-service foundry specializing in monumental bronze. Blumberg spent many weeks on-site at the foundry to complete the work in time for the parade. It depicts a male Green Beret operator wearing a boonie hat on horseback leading the invasion into Afghanistan. His right hand is holding field glasses. An M4A1 carbine equipped with picatinny rails around the gun barrel with the upper receiver, an ACOG at the upper receiver, an AN/PEQ-2 laser sight at the right side of the barrel, a 30 round STANAG magazine, an attached M203 grenade launcher under the barrel, and attached to a sling is slung under his right shoulder. An outline of a wedding band is visible under the glove of the soldier's left hand. Blumberg said, "That's my way of tipping my hat to wives, marriages, and the strain on families. It's to acknowledge the stresses caused by multiple deployments." The small, Afghan "Lokai" horse shows "Tersk" breeding, indicating a horse of Eastern European heritage descended from horses brought in by the Soviets in the 1980s. In the Afghan culture, the soldiers only ride stallions into battle. The horses could be difficult to control, and the statue depicts the horse rearing back. The horse tack depicted by Blumberg is traditional to the Afghani people. A tasseled breast collar helps keep the flies off the chest and legs. The statue's base reflects the steep, precipitous slopes that the soldiers often traveled on horseback. World Trade Center steel During the battle against the Taliban, each Green Beret ODA team carried a piece of steel recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center in honor of the 9/11 victims. Later in the war, they each buried their piece of steel at a significant point in the battle. Bowers chose Mazar-i-Sharif as the location to bury his piece of the World Trade Center. This was the location of one of their toughest battles and where CIA officer Mike Spann became the first American killed in action in Afghanistan. Like the soldiers it honors, the statue carries a piece of steel from the World Trade Center. It is visible under the plinth, embedded in the base. The monument's inscription states that the steel "symbolizes the connection between the events of 9/11 and the actions of the special operations heroes this monument honors." == Dedication ==

The statue was introduced to the public during the Veteran's Day Parade in New York City on November 11, 2011. The statue was displayed on a float, which led the parade along Fifth Avenue from 23rd Street north to 56th Street. It was dedicated the same day in a ceremony led by Vice President Joe Biden and Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, commander of Special Operations Command and formerly commander of Task Force Dagger during the initial days of the War in Afghanistan. The land at One World Trade Center for the monument was donated by a private Wall Street firm. Rededication at One World Trade Center The statue was rededicated on October 19, 2012, by General John Mulholland. He dedicated the statue in its new location in front of One World Trade Center, across from Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial. The bronze statue was positioned so the soldier atop the horse is keeping a watchful eye over the World Trade Center and its tenants. Soldiers representing the United States Army Special Operations Command attended the ceremony. At its rededication, the statue's entire cost of over $750,000 had been paid by hundreds of private citizens. Moved to Liberty Park On September 11, 2016, the statue was rededicated once again at a permanent site on an elevated space on the south side of Ground Zero in Liberty Park, a park in Lower Manhattan. The park was built on top of the World Trade Center's Vehicular Security Center and overlooks the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. == In popular culture ==

In 2009, Disney bought the movie rights to Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers, and Jerry Bruckheimer began seeking financing in December 2011. The 2018 war drama film 12 Strong, directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and written by Ted Tally and Peter Craig, was released on January 19, 2018. The statue makes a brief appearance in the final scene of the film, just before the credits roll. == References ==