America's Response Monument, subtitled De Oppresso Liber, is a life-and-a-half scale bronze statue in Liberty Park overlooking the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

Unofficially known as the Horse Soldier Statue, it is the first publicly accessible monument[2] dedicated to the United States Army Special Forces.

In April 2011, an anonymous group of Wall Street bankers who lost friends in the 9/11 attacks commissioned a large, 16 feet (4.9 m) tall version.

[4] The statue commemorates the service members of America's Special Operations forces and their response to 9/11, including those who fought during the first stages of the Afghanistan war.

[6] He was inspired to begin the sculpture by a photo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld displayed at a press conference at the Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois, on November 16, 2001, shortly after U.S. forces entered Afghanistan.

[7][8] As part of Operation Enduring Freedom, President George W. Bush sent covert forces into Afghanistan to help the Northern Alliance defeat the Taliban.

[9] More than 300 kilometers (190 mi) were flown across the 16,000 feet (4,900 m) Hindu Kush mountains in zero-visibility conditions by a SOAR MH-47E Chinook helicopter.

On January 16, 1942, Troop G encountered Japanese forces at the village of Morong, and Lieutenant Edwin P. Ramsey ordered a cavalry charge.

[13] 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.

[14] Supported by American air power and precision-guided munitions, they successfully attacked the Taliban, many of whom threw away their weapons and ran.

The next day, the Northern Alliance prepared to attack Cōbaki, in Balkh Province, 121 kilometres (75 mi) south of Mazar-i-Sharif.

When it looked like Dostum's cavalry charge would fail, several members of ODA 595 rode into action and helped win the battle.

"[15][16][17] 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.

"[20] 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.

On his own initiative and expense, Blumberg took three months to complete a 1:6 scale, 18 inches (460 mm) tall bronze sculpture of a Green Beret riding an Afghan horse.

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.

The soldiers showed Blumberg the indigenous horse tack made out of dried sinew that they had brought back from the war.

Blumberg got the men's phone numbers and began collaborating with them to produce a highly accurate representation of a member of their team on horseback.

[23] Eight years later, in March 2011, he received a call from a group of New York City Wall Street bankers who had lost friends and co-workers in the 9/11 attacks.

"We wanted to do something for the special operations community and all military service branches because every day since 9/11, we've had to look at that hole in the ground," one of the private backers says.

[28] It depicts a male Green Beret operator wearing a boonie hat on horseback leading the invasion into Afghanistan.

[30] 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.

The bronze statue was positioned so the soldier atop the horse is keeping a watchful eye over the World Trade Center and its tenants.

[36][37] In 2009, Disney bought the movie rights to Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers, and Jerry Bruckheimer began seeking financing in December 2011.

[38] 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.