War hero to speak at rodeo fundraiser
Jul. 19—Mark Nutsch, commander of the first Green Beret team to go into Afghanistan after 9-11, will be in Abilene for a Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo fundraiser.
Whiskey and War Stories is a two-hour event beginning at 3 p.m. July 30, at the Elks Lodge. People can purchase tickets by calling Alex James, Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo Association secretary, at 785-820-1415. The cost is $150 for one, $280 for two and the tickets include a bottle of Horse Soldier bourbon.
During the first part of the fundraiser Nutsch will speak about his team's mission, which the movie 12 Strong was based on.
"They were the first boots on the ground in Afghanistan after 9-11," James said.
When the team arrived, they had to navigate the Afghanistan mountains — they could not do it by vehicle.
"They had to go horseback," James said.
Of the 12 members of the team, only Nutsch and one other had experience around horses. Nutsch grew up in Kansas doing rodeo and was on the Kansas State University rodeo team. The rest of his team got a crash course in horsemanship.
"It wasn't in an arena or in a calm, peaceful setting — it was the Afghan mountains where they'd never been and had many obstacles to get through," James said. "They were called the Horse Soldiers because of that mission."
During the second hour of the fundraiser, Nutsch will talk about the history of the distillery and walk guests through a tasting of the straight, the small batch straight, and the barrel strength straight bourbon whisky
"When (the team) came back from the war this group of guys decided they wanted to do something outside of the military so they got into craft bourbon and created this Horse Soldier bourbon," James said.
In a nod to the history that ultimately resulted in the creation of Horse Soldier bourbon, the bottles are made by pressing glass into molds made from steel salvaged from the World Trade Center.
"The foundation in charge of World Trade Center (memorial) have a monument honoring Mark and his team in New York," James said. "They pulled the material from the debris and gave it to Mark and his guys to be able to utilize that metal to create a forge that forms the bottles."
Tickets for the fundraiser are expected to sell out quickly; however, James said they will offer the bourbon and other Horse Soldier merchandise at the rodeo, which Nutsch will attend, with his family, all four nights, Aug. 1 through 4. He and all veterans will be honored at the Aug. 4 military appreciation night. Additionally, all the liquor stores surrounding liquor stores in Abilene carry the three bourbons, which James said are, "Very, very good."
