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HS-2 Retired Lt. Col. Rob Schaefer discusses a mission undertaken by the distillery team to recover remains from a U.S. aircraft shot down in the South Pacific during World War II. His distillery manufactures Horse Soldier Bourbon. PHOTOS/TERRY LLOYD -
HS-2 Retired Lt. Col. Rob Schaefer discusses a mission undertaken by the distillery team to recover remains from a U.S. aircraft shot down in the South Pacific during World War II. His distillery manufactures Horse Soldier Bourbon. PHOTOS/TERRY LLOYD
Levee Liquors of St. Cloud hosted a night of bourbon and war stories at the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 14, featuring retired Lt. Col. Rob Schaefer, U.S. Army Special Forces. Schaefer is a founding member of American Freedom Distillery with other former Special Forces members who entered Afghanistan shortly after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in September 2001.
American Freedom Distillery produces a multiple award-winning spirit, Horse Soldier Bourbon, which commemorates the Green Beret team that rode into a crucial battle against the Taliban on Afghan ponies. Schaefer was an officer with Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, the 12-man Special Forces “A” Team that rode into that battle after a long trek through the mountains. The action was portrayed in the 2018 film “12 Strong,” and there is also a CNN documentary titled “Legion of Brothers.” In real life, the “cavalry charge” was the first Army use of horses in combat since an actual U.S. Calvary charge in World War Two against Imperial Japanese forces in the Philippines in 1942.
“Only one of the team members was a skilled horseman, and the Afghan ponies were all stallions and very mean. They would try to bite you, the other horses, and the other riders. Riding these unruly horses along narrow mountain tracks with 1,000-foot drop-offs was very sporting, to say the least,” said Schaefer.
With over 100 Special Forces “Green Berets” working with anti-Taliban Afghan Northern Alliance forces, and coordinating U.S. airstrikes, within two months the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies, including Osama Bin Laden, had to retreat to the remote border region with Pakistan. A Horse Soldier statue, formally known as the America’s Response Monument, is located at Ground Zero in New York City.
The statue at Ground Zero was commissioned by a group of financiers and bankers who had lost friends on 9/11, and the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Special Forces Foundation also contributed to the effort. No public funds were used for the monument, and the rights to the “Horse Soldier” image for the bourbon reside with the distillery. Steel salvaged from the fallen towers was donated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to make the bottle molds.
The current distillery is located in Kentucky and the distillery has an Urban Stillhouse fine dining restaurant and bar in St. Petersburg. Horse Soldier Farms is currently under construction in Kentucky. In addition to a distillery, there will be hotels, campgrounds, meeting and wedding venues, and a variety of recreational options with nearby access to the Lake of the Ozarks. Upon opening, the location will be featured on the state’s Bourbon Trail.
The distillery supports the Tunnels to Tower Foundation, Folds of Honor, the foundation that maintains the America’s Response Monument and provides veteran employment training through Veteran Florida.
For more information on the Horse Soldier distillery, go to https://bit. ly/48nhkpi
