What happened next was the first of many distortions and fictional retelling of their story. 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. Here Spann interviews Lindh but Lindh remains silent. Dostums lieutenants would call him in Turkey and tell him how difficult life had become. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. Submit an Article Paul here is busy shooting at guys. Our Afghans are running out of ammo. 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 took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. He points out that the word "Tiangi" actually means gap, so when they refer to the "Tiangi gap" in the movie, they're actually saying the gap, gap.Pennington said that with regard to the enemy vehicle (BM-21) launching rockets in and around the Tiangi, it did happen, several times. ), Commander Abdul Karim Fakir, who was in charge of the fortress while Dostum was in Kunduz, had worked with the Green Berets since they landed in Afghanistan. 12 STRONG: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers Military historians have called it one of the most successful unconventional warfare campaigns in U.S. history. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. Then the morphine begins to kick in. Like in the 12 Strong movie, the real Horse Soldiers were able to liberate Afghanistan's fourth largest city, Mazar-i-Sharif, in just three weeks. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. Late in the afternoon, a convoy of mud-spattered off-road vehicles pulls up, and a dozen dusty Americans in tan chocolate chip camo climb out. An odd case of alack of evidence being brought forward as the evidence. The team cleared him for immediate re-attack, but the pilot radioed back that he had hung a bomba bomb had not released. Later, I find out that theyve come hoping to retrieve the body of Central Intelligence Agency officer Johnny Micheal Spann, who was killed by Taliban prisonersthe first American combat casualty in Afghanistan. Their rooms are filled with green Army cots, dirty brown packs, and green flight bags. 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 all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. As for team leader Mark Nutsch, the real-life counterpart to the film's main character portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, he had no actual combat experience prior to the mission. 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. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. Nutsch was the commander of the 12-man Green Berets from 5th Special Forces Group on a mission to Afghanistan in the weeks after 9/11 terrorist attacks. ODA 595 followed by ODA 555 were the first two teams to have boots on the ground in Afghanistan following 9/11. Dostum arrives that night, ducking to avoid banging his head as he strides through the guest-house door. . The trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. Right next to where I am staying. When it looked like they would break the back of the position, he would ride through as fast as he could and keep the Taliban on the run., With their knowledge of military history, the Regulators appreciated the ironies of this strange war: The Taliban had gone from the muj style of fightingin the mountains, on horsebackto working in mechanized columns, says Will, another member of 595. 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. -The Fayetteville Observer. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 12 STRONG Rebeca Aguilar-Diaz PROFESSOR - Course Hero The general gets out of the car and goes down the line, trying to embrace and talk to each person, but it is getting dark. He lies staring at the ceiling. As we drive, Paul tells me that, back in the U.S., even the Regulators are subject to a military culture of rules and red tape. My memorable experience as cast member of 12 Story It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. Armored personnel carriers jerk to life in clouds of black diesel exhaust. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. No one individual was the model for the statue. Our warhad been big footed by Iraq. show Dostum the chapter in Rashids book that includes the account of the gruesome execution of the thief. Captain Mark Nutsch, Special Forces commander on the mission and Chief Warrant Officer Bob Pennington, the real-life counterparts to the roles played by Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, were both on set to ensure accuracy in the movie's portrayal. Washington, D.C.. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. About 200 men have taken up positions around the village, eyeing ragged locals, who stare back from a careful distance. Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) refuses. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. Wrapped in blankets, members of the mullahs entourage fix me with soulless stares. Mark Nutsch | Keppler Speakers An event and a man I will never forget. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. It turned out that 900 Pakistani Taliban had been left behind in a madrasah in the center of a compound about the size of a city block, and they were ready to fight to the death. The men Im staying with have dubbed their unit the Regulators, after the 19th-century cowboys who were hired by cattle barons to guard their herds from rustlers. The moments of shockIs this really happening? When the pilot radioed that he needed to return to base, the other pilot swung into action. Yes. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. To my surprise, these men felt at home., And more than that: The Afghan warlord and his tiny band of American soldiers had clearly formed a bond that only men who have been through combat can understand. Like in the 12 Strong movie, Nutsch helped teach the other team members how to ride. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. All I see is brown dirt and men on donkeys leading camels along the road. They range in age from mid-20s to early 40s. As we explored the accuracy of 12 Strong, we discovered that a group of both currently-serving and retired U.S. special operators were involved in the making of the movie, mainly to make sure that the filmmakers represented soldiers and combat accurately. Six months ago, he traveled to Kabul with some Pakistanis to join the Taliban. Hemsworth and Negahban convey the tension between the two men brilliantly, and Negahban had this to say: This was the first film that truly shows what Afghans went through and how we united with them to achieve our goal.. The risk they were taking was indeed that great. Or maybe that scene in Star Wars: These sand people started jabbering in a language we had never heard. The Americans shouldered their hundred-pound rucksacks while the Afghans hefted the rest of the equipment. I head downstairs and discover a group of soldiers bantering cheerfully, mostly in southern accents. He has two weeks of beard, beetling eyebrows, and a graying brush cut. is the manner in which military members tend to downplay their service or push aside thanks, rarely focusing on themselves, but on their team or country as a whole. Dostum has not been home in five years to the village of Khvajeh Do Kuh. He waves the accomplishment aside with a shy smile even as he promises to introduce me to his new trophiesthe mullahs. Horse Soldiers Analysis - eNotes.com Various close ups of American Specia. At least two Red Cross workers who descend into the bunker are shot and wounded. But 9/11 changed all that. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. Dostum proves to be significantly more expansive in conversation than his scant press clippings would suggest, and hes happy to fill me in on his background. They observed how the film production was set up and talked to some of the actors, but they were never hired as consultants. One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. But when he smiles, he looks like a naughty 12-year-old. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. In 2014, General Dostum became Vice President of Afghanistan. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. When the videotape of my interview with Walker hits the airwaves back in the U.S., the country focuses its white-hot anger on him, and some of that anger spills over onto me. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. Mark Nutsch Age, Wife, Family, Story, Biography & More Beyond that, all I know is that Dostum, born a poor peasant, grew up to be a brilliant commander, a general, and a warlordone of the many regional leaders across Afghanistan whose power derives both from ethnic loyalties and from military strength. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. Afghans in a blue truck are scavenging for parts. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It was old-fashioned professionalism. "Excellent." "It's your city, general. At the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. 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. They have been blowing themselves up with grenades. We could see a bunch of Taliban come out of another bunker complex off to the south and disappear behind a hill. Same thing: We identity it and boom! ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. In exploring how accurate 12 Strong is, we learned that some members of the ODA 595 Special Forces team had been involved in a nighttime training exercise along the Cumberland River. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. After all, can Hollywood do this topic justice? The two Afghan leaders study a map with Captain Mark, just in case air strikes are needed. Dostums men have been throwing down grenades and pouring in gasoline and lighting it, but the foreign Taliban refuse to come up. On 19 October . The prisoners were not properly searched by members of the Northern Alliance before they were crammed onto trucks and the troops had not realized the American Lindh was among them. On October 7, 2001, ODA 595 arrived in Karchi-Khanabad (K2) Airfield, Uzbekistan. No more Taliban. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. The morning after Heavy Ds return from Kunduz, he greets me with a deep, booming Howareyou? Today, he tells me, he is eager for me to meet his trophy mullahs. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. What else do you expect my enemies to say? he asks. Now, Cpt. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. I soon learn that yesterday some 400 foreign Taliban prisoners overpowered their guards, broke into arsenals, and took over part of the fortress. The baby was born early while Mark was in Afghanistan. That is one of the premises Osama bin Laden operates under. Dostum wasnt about to let an American casualty put a premature end to his battle plan. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. Mullah Faizel, commander of the Taliban Army in the North. At the last minute the Agency was told by the SF ground commander that his men were going in with or without the Agency. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. When war first came to Afghanistan, two decades ago, he built his first stronghold here to guard the village. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. Yes. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. A military man and his wife hold each other, knowing they will be separated in the morning, unsure of the future. Anticipating more fireworks, I head there with him and move into another of his residences, a huge, high-walled compound that includes a mosque and, improbably, an unfinished health-club complex. I was at the prison in Sheberghan when they unloaded the trucks and watched the Red Cross medics count the dead and note the wounded. Commanders, clergymen, womenthey would all tell me very bitter stories. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. The first words I wanted to learn in Dari were, How do you make him stop?, Their most important immediate order of business was to establish themselves in Dostums eyes. "If they got in trouble, there was very little I could do and nothing I could do quickly. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. 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. The doctor yells in halting English, What your name? He jabs at the half-conscious mans face. So I approach a war movie set in the days after 9/11 with a certain amount of skepticism. A crude videotape made by one of Dostums men shows a battle in the rolling hills of the Darra-e Suf, where the yellow grass contrasts with the deep blue sky. '12 Strong' battles for hearts and minds - Boston Herald 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. America was fully committed to defeating the Taliban and ousting them from power. Its three weeks after the madrasah bombing, and word has come down that 3,000 Taliban are still occupying the city and environs of Balkh, Alexander the Greats old walled capital, a few miles west of Mazar. It was indeed as much of a surprise to the real team as it is in the movie. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. KABUL, Afghanistan After more than a year in exile, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum returned to his native Afghanistan on Sunday facing criminal charges of rape and kidnapping, as well . Was it ten thousand, five thousand, The actual number was around 3,500 who surrendered, another460 al Qaeda showed up at thegates of Mazar and around 250 300 died of their wounds, diseaseor suffocation during transport in the frigid weather. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. So, I worked for him, directly," says Riggle. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. Dostum stays in contact with the Americans by radio, working to help focus the bombing: a man with a seventh-grade education directing the fire of the worlds most powerful military. We did all that we could. He brings the mullahs along, to show them the havoc incited by their foreign volunteers. "For all of our teams, the risk was extraordinary," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. And that is a story worth telling. He talked for half an hour. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. People demanded that I do something, says Dostum. He had been assigned to a Manhattan reserve unit at the time of 9/11 and spent part of September 2001 cleaning up debris from the World Trade Center. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). . "All of these guys have blood on their hands. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. You felt the air leave. Following several weather delays, ODA 595 and ODA 555 flew into Afghanistan on MH-47 helicopters on October 19, 2001, 39 days after Al-Qaeda's attack on the World Trade Center. -NPR, No. Like in the film (available to watch here), at first they tried giving him horse feed but General Dostum wasn't impressed. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. First arrival on the Observation Post. Privacy Policy The team set up on the roof of a building about 400 meters from the madrasah and called in a strike. I was sick of this guy running back and forth getting ammo. However, with regard to making sure the movie didn't veer too far from the true story, only two members of the original ODA-595 detachment visited the set for a total of 2.5 days. Also, there was hardly any assurance that the team would be safe with the Afghan fighters they were working alongside. Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. 12 Strong - Wikipedia The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. What '12 Strong' Tells Us about Afghanistan - The National Interest He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. Staying off the roads and in the wilds, they could swoop down andattackthe Taliban but could not hold the ground. you die. We were focused on calling in an air strike to take out this truck that had rumbled into view, and now RPG rounds are flying over our heads. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. They formed an alliance with Afghan rebels led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, played by Numan Acar. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. Three years of drought have broken: A cold rain pours down in gray sheets. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. 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. Now we hope that America will not be cruel to the Afghan people.. 12 Strong tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain, the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban. -The Fayetteville Observer. Dostum has decided to clean up the regions last remaining pocket of Taliban himself. Aside from the challenges of cultural differences and a sense of distrust on both sides, the Americans, with their state of the art technology and equipment, had to learn to navigate the treacherous mountains and desert landscape the same way the locals did: on horseback. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. But back in 2001, Warlord Dostum who was head of the Jumbesh political party had simpler but identical goals: Align with the U.S. to return from exile in Turkey and bring the Taliban into the new government. The Real Story of General Dostum and 12 Strong Green Berets He did have trouble getting off his horse, and like in the movie, the medic gave him something for the pain. More than 400 prisoners are said to have died; I count only about 50 bodies in the courtyard. -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. Buzkashi is the way Afghan boys learn to rideand its the way Afghan politics is played: There are few rules and the toughest, meanest, and most brutal player takes the prize. A good reminder for all Americans are the scenes portraying the oppressive lives the Afghan people were subjected to under Taliban rule. The young commando Abdul Rashid, quickly rose through the ranks. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. Nelson must convince Col. Mulholland (William Fichtner) that his team is ready to meet with Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. Nothing of the war, death, exile, and victory that have shaped the man sitting in the front seat. The deadline is noon. He freely admits that in two decades of war, abuses have been committed by the troops of every commander. How the 'Horse Soldiers' helped liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere.
