I was sick of this guy running back and forth getting ammo. 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. Advertise Today the government of President Ghani has welcomed the fighters ofHekmatyar from exile in Pakistan and is looking to bring the Taliban into the government. Arent you the guy who goes to all those dangerous places?. I head downstairs and discover a group of soldiers bantering cheerfully, mostly in southern accents. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. He waves the accomplishment aside with a shy smile even as he promises to introduce me to his new trophiesthe mullahs. You call in an airplane; you say, Can you see that place? They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. They sit patiently for hours, clutching tiny pieces of paper, seeking his aid. People still walk by the 16-foot bronze statue of a Green Beret on horseback overlooking Ground Zero and are unaware of its significance (the Horse Soldiers monument is pictured near the bottom of this page). Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. Transfixed, they watch the Christmas tree being lit in Rockefeller Center. Accordingly, on 25 May 1997, Malik arrested Khan, handed him over and let the Taliban enter Mazar-e-Sharif, giving them control over most of northern Afghanistan. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . 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. Once the ODA 595 linked up with Dostum, they were to "render the area unsafe for the Taliban and terrorist activity," says Green Beret Mark Nutsch, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie. And that is a story worth telling. 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. So, I'm playing my old boss in the movie." 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. Some are provided by Dostum and others. And if they became overwhelmed by the enemy, little could be done to save them since they would be roughly nine hours away from help. In the back, a doctor leans over a man with a smoke-blackened face, wild black hair, and an unkempt beard. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. When a Marxist government came to power in a bloody coup in 1978, the new regimes radical reforms ignited a guerrilla war with the mujahidin who based themselves in the countrys remote mountain ranges. We begged, Mark says, but we were told to stay away. (In the end, the Regulators wouldnt get clearance to enter Qala Jangi until the uprising was over. ", Yes. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. These are the soldiers I saw back at Qala Jangi preparing to go in and retrieve the body of the dead CIA agent, Mike Spann. Then the radios are jammed with Dostums men shouting and celebrating. 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. 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. 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.. When the regime fell in 1992, three years after the Soviets departed, Dostum fought alongside the mujahidin and helped the Northern Alliances legendary Ahmad Shah Massoud battle the fundamentalist Pashtun forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and gain control of the capital. He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. During the Talibans reign, thousands of Hazara Shias were murdered in northern Afghanistan; the mullahs are unrepentant. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. In real life, Bob Pennington wasn't badly injured by a surrendering enemy fighter who blew himself up with his own grenade, an act that leaves Michael Shannon's character clinging to life as his fellow soldiers hurry to extract him. 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. Then the morphine begins to kick in. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.. This included using horses to navigate the mountainous region. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. Power is not given to anyone forever. We had unrestricted movement into the gap, which gave us the high ground.. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. For a brief moment, the general stands triumphant, the conquering hero, the bring-er of peace, the warlord who has ended war in the northand, therefore, perhaps eliminated his own reason for being. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Mitch Miller died on July 31, 2010 of natural causes. 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. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. However, the real Amy Nutsch, the wife of Mark Nutsch, was six months pregnant at the time of the September 11 attacks. Capt. 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. You raise your flag," Nelson says. 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. Then came September 11. 12 Strong stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor from the Avengers movies, in case youre not up on pop culture) and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon and is produced by Alcon Entertainment, Black Label Media, and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. Dostums men have been throwing down grenades and pouring in gasoline and lighting it, but the foreign Taliban refuse to come up. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Mark Nutsch and his team had to gain Dostum's trust and convince him that 9/11 had changed things. Later on he had a dark premonition. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. He brings the mullahs along, to show them the havoc incited by their foreign volunteers. His father is old. 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. What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. He wont tell me who to contact, or provide any information that would get him out of the crudely equipped hospital. They were forced to spend the night on the river bank after dense fog made it impossible to navigate their Zodiac inflatable boats. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. It also means a great deal to our families, who sacrifice so much, that what we accomplished is finally being brought more into public light. The book is the inspiration behind the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film called "12 Strong" that was released in 2018 and stars Chris Hemsworth as Capt. On another truck are the seriously wounded. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. Theyd heard rumors that he was 80 years old, that he didnt have use of his right arm. 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. Nothing of the war, death, exile, and victory that have shaped the man sitting in the front seat. Soldiers run up to the bite in the wall, shoot into the fort, and then scurry back down. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. His lack of combat experience is pointed out in the movie. The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. Commanders, clergymen, womenthey would all tell me very bitter stories. July 22, 2018. He was quick to defend the weak and if negotiations failed he had no shortage of armed men that would stand beside him. Nutsch said that the movie leaves out a key river that the men often had to swim across in the freezing cold water with their horses, one of the bigger obstacles they faced on the mission. Mark Nutsch, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie, had recently been promoted out of the job he loved, serving in the field as a Special Forces team captain. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. After a cinematic pause to allow the implications of his arrival to sink in, Dostum phones the village leadership from the Audi: Send out your weapons and any fighters or were going in. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. Where you from? The man finally answers. Finally, the pilot says he has the target in sight. A military man and his wife hold each other, knowing they will be separated in the morning, unsure of the future. Rifles, night-vision gear, and boots are strewn everywhere. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. A good reminder for all Americans are the scenes portraying the oppressive lives the Afghan people were subjected to under Taliban rule. Images of them doing this can be seen below and in Alex Quade's short documentary Horse Soldiers of 9/11. 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. "The threat of capture, torture was very real." Over chai (tea), he announces good news. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. . However, at least 3 false starts delayed their deployment for almost a month. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. The enemy was 700 meters out and moving quickly. As Bill checks for wounds, he talks to the young man briefly in Arabic. 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. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). An old man yells, God bless you. 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. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. A typical meal at Dostums guesthouse. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. That I am kind and gentle? From there, American and Afghan forces would liberate Kabul in the east, Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south, and Jalalabad, resulting in the Afghan forces taking control of the country from the Taliban. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. Nelson and five of his men set off behind General Dostum and his forces, leaving Cal Spencer, Pat Essex, Charles Jones, Scott Black, Ben Milo, and Fred Falls behind to coordinate logistics and . That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. In the book, Bowers had planned to give the piece of metal to Afghan General Dostum and warlord Atta Muhammad Noor, if needed, to bind them in their common fight against the Taliban. The Horse Soldiers monument in New York City is not based on any one person. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. They also need blankets.". ODA 555 was inserted next in the east in the Panjshir Valley, with the mission of working with ethnic Tajik fighters. Mitch Nelson, scanned the dark landscape around the landing zone. 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. I could see the horses blasting out the other side. Dostum dismounted and shook everyones hand, then sat on a mound covered with carpets. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. The 12 Strong true story confirms that he had been given an administrative staff position in the Fifth Group Headquarters. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. 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 the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. Dostum arrives that night, ducking to avoid banging his head as he strides through the guest-house door. 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. When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. Three or four bombs hit right in the middle of the enemy position, says Will. 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. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. 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. Hemsworth plays Capt. In the movie, another team member arrives to pick them up and tells them about the attacks. A local mullah sings a prayer of deliverance and thanks to Dostum. Yes, and that's why Gen. Dostum kept the American soldiers back from the front lines at first. This is the back jacket of The Hunt for Bin Laden ghostwritten by the late Jack Idema and published as non fiction by Random House editor Bob Loomis. If there is no enemy, then bureaucracy is the enemy, he says. 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. The doctor yells in halting English, What your name? He jabs at the half-conscious mans face. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. Dostum, portrayed brilliantly by Navid Negahban, comes off as a kind of Obi Wan Kenobi, the ancient-wisdom-dispensing warrior. He also used to compete in collegiate rodeos. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. What happened next was the first of many distortions and fictional retelling of their story. Outnumbered by enemy fighters 5,000 to 1, the men were also in extreme danger due to the huge bounties placed on their lives by the Taliban. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. The only sign that something is about to happen is a white contrail high in the sky. He did have trouble getting off his horse, and like in the movie, the medic gave him something for the pain. It was the finest sight I ever saw. "Very Good," replied Dostum. 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. 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 rounds are zinging over my head. 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. We did all that we could. Instead of the expected handful of holdouts, no fewer than 86 foreign Taliban emerged after a week in the agonizing dark and coldstarved, deaf, hypothermic, wounded, and exhausted. "Excellent." Later, one is shown penning a goodbye letter to his family. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. 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. Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. We could see a bunch of Taliban come out of another bunker complex off to the south and disappear behind a hill. "When I went to Afghanistan, I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers. I know because I counted the dead bodies. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. 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. . A story of how 12 Americansand a Afghan warlord won the war on terror, if only for a brief time still remains to be told. 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. He says it was an area sympathetic to the Taliban and that his heart went out to them. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. A man who is said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. Green Berets work in secrecy, so only their first names can be used: Theres Andy, the slow-talking weapons expert who is never without his grenade launcher; back home, he keeps the guns in his collections loaded so they are ready when I am. Both he and Paul, a quiet, bespectacled warrant officer, have been in the unit 11 years. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. Shannon's character is wounded in the movie for dramatic effect. 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 mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. He lies staring at the ceiling. 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. Yes, but the tagline is a bit of an exaggeration. Andy chimes in. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. William Fichtner portrays Mulholland in the movie and Homeland's Navid Negahban plays General Dostum.
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