I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. Infiltrate the 12 Strong true story further by watching the documentary and videos below. The rest of the time they travel. Mullah Faizel, commander of the Taliban Army in the North. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. I was full of emotions. Since he cant speak Urdu, he was assigned to the Arab-speaking branch of Ansar (the helpers), a faction that Walker claims is sponsored by Osama bin Ladenwhom Walker says he saw many times in the training camps and on the front lines. In contrast to the Americans high-tech warfare, some of Dostums tactics would have seemed familiar to the British troops who tried and failed to pacify this region in the 19th century. One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. If there is no enemy, then bureaucracy is the enemy, he says. Ironically, it was this sort of diplomatic triumphthe surrender at Kunduz just before my arrivaland not a battle that gave the Regulators their most bitter experience of the war. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! America was fully committed to defeating the Taliban and ousting them from power. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. "We slept on the ground the first couple of nights." ODA 555 was inserted next in the east in the Panjshir Valley, with the mission of working with ethnic Tajik fighters. Shannon's character is wounded in the movie for dramatic effect. We set up in a bomb crater and used it as our bunker. When we climbed up to the top of that hill, we could see the Taliban on the other side, regrouping for the final attempt to stop us. I thought the guy was this ruthless warlord, one soldier says. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. Mitch Nelson," a. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. Support Dostum. In Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers, it was Colonel Max Bowers, portrayed by Rob Riggle, who brought a piece of steel with him from the World Trade Center to Afghanistan. Its like a casting call for The Dirty Dozen. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. The first thing we wanted to do was to say to Dostum, The Americans are here, Paul explains, and to make it a fearsome prospect to mess with us. The Americans set up their gear at Dostums command postwhich overlooked Taliban positions about six miles awayand immediately began the process of calling in close air support, or CAS. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. When we got there, we were sitting on our asses. It was while they watched the drawn-out surrender that Mike Spann was attacked at Qala Jangi and the uprising began. A local mullah sings a prayer of deliverance and thanks to Dostum. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. Dostum and his commanders wanted to negotiate, but the foreign Taliban shot and killed their peace envoys, which left Al-liance leaders with little choice. The soldiers stay well away from the al Qaeda prisoners as I interview them. It was old-fashioned professionalism. It served as Pauls command post. "For all of our teams, the risk was extraordinary," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. I targeted a spot right next to this guys head. Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. Based on the novel Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, 12 Strong offers a realistic depiction of what the unit went through, the inner workings of military culture, and the effect on both Afghan civilians and the units families back home. With the help of his troops and Muslim counterparts in Afghanistan, he not only captured the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but also topple the Taliban. Their subcommander has told us at least six times over the radio to get out of there. Yes, and that's why Gen. Dostum kept the American soldiers back from the front lines at first. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. (Within a week, he will be named deputy minister of defense for the new interim government of Afghanistan.) They had tanks, air force, and artillery. Two weeks after Dostum descended on Balkh, things have calmed down, so the warlord climbs into the front passenger seat of a Nissan, and we head across a sandstorm-blasted desert. Once they hit the ground, the Regulators would be writing their own game plan. In the words of director Nicolai Fuglsig: This is a movie where you can rally around both the Americans and the Afghans because, together, they took an epic ride into the mouth of hell. They are known as the quiet professionals because their missions are covert and, for obvious reasons, they rarely publicize their exploits., Actor and producer Thad Luckinbill commented on the need to just be authentic and pay these guys the respect that they deserve and tell the story that should be told., One of the most fascinating threads throughout the movie is the forging of an uneasy partnership between Captain Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth) and Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban). Contact Us Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. Arent you the guy who goes to all those dangerous places?. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. They also had two boys, then ages 4 and 3 (in the movie, they have a little girl). The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. His father is old. And we were going to oblige them.. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. As portrayed by actor Chris Hemsworth in the major motion picture, 12 Strong, Mark Nutsch (aka Mitch Nelson in the film) shares lessons learned in the now-declassified saga of a U.S. Special Forces team that overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to help achieve a historic military victory. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. Some hide their faces, others convulse and shiver. Paul picks up the story, raindrops dotting his gold-rimmed, government-issue glasses. In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. Despite the movie accurately capturing the soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, the real-life heroes have said that the movie does take artistic liberties, adding drama and portraying certain events out of order. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. The bread we ate was half-mixed with dirt. He never sacrificed his men. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. In the conservative press I am criticized for being too gentle in my questioning of an obvious traitor, on the left for cold-bloodedly tricking a helpless boy into incriminating himself. It was the finest sight I ever saw. Its a helluva thing we do, isnt it? These are two of the Taliban who chased Dostum out of Mazar in May 1997, but still he treats them more like honored guests than prisoners of war. I was asked to sit on the same row as the team during his funeral. Down the road at the Regulators make-shift barracks, a call comes over the Motorola: Pack your shit. The men quickly gather their gear, as they have so many times before. The whole team jelled.. Spotlighting a Special Forces unit that went to Afghanistan soon after 9/11 to hunt and destroy al-Qaeda, "12 Strong" follows this dirty dozen led by Hemsworth's "Capt. Of course, war is cruel and brutal; any person who has ever read a single page of history understands the unfortunate necessity and commonality of war in all cultures, in all countries around . Not exactly. What we didnt realize was that the Taliban who we saw coming out of the bunker had gone into the low ground and were sprinting up the hills at us in a flanking maneuver. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. They formed an alliance with Afghan rebels led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, played by Numan Acar. Then came September 11. We were ready to throw down the mattress and settle in for the night when one of the security guards came up with a radio and said that Dostum needed someone to go up to the front to call in aircraft. "Very Good," replied Dostum. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. If you drive west from Mazar, past Qala Jangi, past Khoda Barq, past the ancient, crumbling city of Balkh, and head south toward a ridge of snow-dusted mountains called the Alborz Range, you will see a gapthe Tingi Pass. The rest mounted up and rode north. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. Our Team At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. The now declassified mission, code-name Task Force Dagger, included joining forces with the loosely organized Northern Alliance to help take back certain provinces, as well as act as the tip of the spear in the initial fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. None of these guys are clean actors." Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. It seems that the brutal warlord has engineered the biggest peaceful surrender in recent Afghan historymore than 5,000 Afghan Taliban fighters and foreign volunteers laid down their arms. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri refuse: They claim they dont know these people. In the last two semi-wars we have been in, every time American soldiers get killed we pull out. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. -The Fayetteville Observer, Originally, the Special Forces team, ODA 595, was supposed to be in Afghanistan on September 14, just three days after the attacks. The Regulators were joined by at least three CIA officers kitted in full combat gear, including a 32-year-old ex-Marine named Mike Spann. On the next pass, three more bombs went through the hole in the roof made by the first bomb, killing most of the holdouts inside. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived. During the press conference with filmmakers and cast members after the movie screening, all expressed their pride in relaying the story of true-life heroes that had been classified until recently. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. The Uzbeks and Hazara took to the mountains to escape the mechanized columns of the Taliban, Those among Dostums men who had remained in Afghanistan now became guerrilla fighters, moving on horseback holed up in the mountains under the command of his former number two La. If we had been there, Mikes death would not have happened., When they got word of the incident, the unit desperately wanted to get back to the prison. It wasnt done perfectly, but it will never be forgotten., Over 3200 prisoners were kept in Sheberghan Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. He has two weeks of beard, beetling eyebrows, and a graying brush cut. Where you from? The man finally answers. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. The 12 Strong true story confirms that he had been given an administrative staff position in the Fifth Group Headquarters. The Regulators job was to invent a new form of warfare: coordinating lightly armed horseback attacks with massive applications of American air powerall without hitting civilians or friendly forces. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. Afghans in a blue truck are scavenging for parts. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. He did have trouble getting off his horse, and like in the movie, the medic gave him something for the pain. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. It feels more than a bit odd to be recognized for my books and TV showas someone who specializes in traveling to the worlds hot spotswhile poking around a war in Afghanistan. SFC Bill Bennett RIP Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. However, the real Amy Nutsch, the wife of Mark Nutsch, was six months pregnant at the time of the September 11 attacks. The dirty gray mushroom cloud slowly bends in the wind. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. The team cleared him for immediate re-attack, but the pilot radioed back that he had hung a bomba bomb had not released. This included using horses to navigate the mountainous region. You see this grid? Headstrong and known to get into fights,was adept at the game of buzkashi, in which horsemen attempt to toss the headless carcass of a calf into a circle. We roll past weathered villages unchanged in two millennia. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. William Fichtner portrays Mulholland in the movie and Homeland's Navid Negahban plays General Dostum. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" Chris Hemsworth's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Nutsch, had worked on a cattle ranch when he was younger and was one of the few members of the 12-man team who had experience riding horses. General Abdul Rashid Dostum is a man who has rarely been interviewed but has often been typecast as a brutal warlordusually because of his reputation for winning. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. It was then that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld showed the press an image of a bearded Green Beret on a horse and explained that the man was directing air strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in northern Afghanistan. An old man yells, God bless you. We will never end wars if we dont understand how to win them. It was like that scene in Close Encounters where the aliens meet humans for the first time, one soldier says later. The madrasah was surrounded for about a mile on each side by identical buildings, which made it difficult for the pilots to pick out the school. Gradually shapes emerged out of the shadows - a small group of Afghan Northern Alliance soldiers together with four American advisers who had been in country for about two weeks. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. Rob Riggle, who portrays Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie (the commander of the 3rd Battalion 5th Special Forces Group) served in Afghanistan as a Marine in 2001. to talk. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. Mark Nutsch and his team had to gain Dostum's trust and convince him that 9/11 had changed things. Its an important part of our countrys history and an amazing story of courage, brothers in arms, and the reasons we ended up in Afghanistan in the first place. If one was to look for the roots of Dostums warlord reputation it began when he was the direct and most successful enemy of the CIA-backed insurgency of fundamentalist warlords based out of Pakistan. Ive arranged through intermediaries to spend a month with the general, but for the past week, he has been a hundred miles east, trying to subdue Taliban forces that control the city of Kunduz. Mitch Nelson, a character based on Nutsch. As Bill checks for wounds, he talks to the young man briefly in Arabic. They told us, If Dostum wants to go to Kabul, you are going with him. The book was quietly taken out of print. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. What happened to General Dostum in Afghanistan? Dostum has decided to clean up the regions last remaining pocket of Taliban himself. The shelling, raping, pillaging, looting, and house-to-house fighting that then befell Kabul stained the name of every mujahidin commander, including Dostums, and fueled his reputation for brutality. -ABC News. Initially eschewing interaction with Nelson due to his youth and the fact that he doesnt have killers eyes, they come to trust each other and eventually work in tandem along with their teams. None of the 12 soldiers died during the 2001 Afghanistan mission. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. Dostum must now change his focus from fighting to rebuilding his country. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. Wide four members of American Special Forces and General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance2. Each night, Dostum would sit down with the Americans and lay out the battle plan for the next day. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. I suggest to Bill that we remove Walker from the hospital, where he might be killed by other patients, many of whom were fighting against him at the fortress. The 12 Strong true story reveals that they finally left Kentucky on October 5, 2001. On October 7, 2001, ODA 595 arrived in Karchi-Khanabad (K2) Airfield, Uzbekistan. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The greatest restrictions they face have been placed on them by Dostum himself. So we haven't even taken the southern part of the country and we're still working with the Northern Alliance. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri soon surrendered Kunduz to Dostum, and Walker was imprisoned with the other foreign volunteers in the bunker at Qala Jangi. The credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. . Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. You see the village; you see the bunkers, says a second Steve, one of the two Air Force men attached to the team to help coordinate air strikes. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. Mitch Nelson (Aussie Chris Hemsworth, aka Thor) is the highly trained but not combat-tested leader of the small team dubbed Task Force Dagger and sent by Col. Mulholland (William. On the morning of September 11, the team was returning to base after an all-night training exercise. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. As I wait for Dostum to return, though, the constant chatter of machine guns and the badoom badoom of cannons from an American gunship bombarding the fortDostums military headquarterssuggest that I might be a bit premature in offering any congratulations on winning the war. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. They had to kill their horses for food. They range in age from mid-20s to early 40s. Weve all been there. Dostums strategy was now their strategy: to ride roughshod over Taliban positions up the Darra-e Suf Valley, roll north over the Tingi Pass in the Alborz Range, then sweep north across the plains and liberate Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistans second largest city. The team was under orders not to talk to journalists. Sidelined, and in exile in Turkey, In 2009, Dostum was begged by President Karzai to come back from exile to reelect him and again in 2014 Dostum engineered the victory ofPresidentGhani.only to go back into exile. In real-life, Dostum became the Vice President of Afghanistan, as stated prior to the movie's end credits. Were not lifting our heads up!, When we turn around and notice whats going on, we see our Afghans have split., The team decided to call in a B-52 strike practically on their own positiona drastic move considering the planes were flying above 15,000 feet. (In his book Taliban, author Ahmed Rashid reports a tale he heard that Dostum once ordered his men to drag a thief behind a tank until all that was left was a bloody pulp of gore. Men who are the Armys elite, who are college educated and fluent in several languages, yet who are paid little more than a manager at McDonalds. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. You raise your flag," Nelson says. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. The CIA had begun to work with Massouds people in October of 1999 hoping to pay him to kill Osama bin Laden. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. We had an entire 250-man cavalry ready to charge. The Regulators wanted Dostums right-hand man, Commander Lal, to hold off while they got their aircraft in position, but Lal had already given the order. Yes. Dostums father talks to his son as though he were a child, telling him that he and the teacher have been praying for his success. There were some deep unresolved internal conflicts because of the death of Mike Spann and why they over their protests had been sent to Kunduz. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. If he goes off the deep end and starts whacking people, advise higher up and maybe pull out. This was the most incredibly open mission we have ever done., Before heading in-country, the soldiers had been briefed only vaguely about Dostum. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . The truck-mounted ZU antiaircraft guns are cranked down to eye level. . But 9/11 changed all that. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.. Yes. After a while we soon got along. The warm smell of gangrene and human waste hits me as I open the door to the triage room. He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. . "The threat of capture, torture was very real." Dating at least to the days of Genghis Khan, the violent game is not so much about scoring as it is about using every dirty trick possiblebeating, whipping, kickingto prevent the opposing team from scoring. However, when the 2009 Horse Soldiers book was being written, Mark Nutsch had requested that his name be changed to protect his identity, as was the case with most of the other Horse Soldiers. No more Taliban. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. Three hours later, I am awakened by a massive explosion a few yards from the houseanother near miss by a rocket fired from inside the fort. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. Dostum tells me that he has fought on every inch of Afghan soil and can recite the names of his men who have died, describe each battle in detail, and tell you what he has learned from every encounter. This time I had less worries with just a few hours waiting for Uzbek guards to look the other way while we hustled our kit over the blockade Friendship Bridge at night. "Excellent." He says it sadly. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Horse Soldiers Documentary & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Newsweek, The New York Times and other outlets insisted that eyewitness had seen American soldiers laughing and shooting into containers. Furthermore, as shown in the movie, they were grossly outnumbered. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. We transfer him to Dostums house, and the next day hes spirited away at the same time that his story is being broadcast around the world. And I believe it will mean a lot to the Afghan people because it shows their service in that conflict.. Now, Cpt. They said, You guys will be on the ground; you figure it out. , Within half an hour of meeting Dostum at the mud-walled compound in the Darra-e Suf, the Regulators swung into action. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. And that is a story worth telling. When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. General Dostum knew the area and how to reach the goal faster by cutting through the mountains and finally communicated this when he felt more trusting of Captain Nelson. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. After our time in country, I became friends with the men and defended them when they were accused of war crimes by the media. I whip my horse, it takes three steps, and stops. It took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. Around eight oclock on Saturday night, while Im talking with the Green Berets, one of Dostums men comes into the house and asks us to follow him outside. I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood.
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