Nelson commits to leading 595 into Afghanistan as word of the disastrous terrorist attacks that day breaks. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. He also used to compete in collegiate rodeos. The bomb lands and hits and bam! Then the concussion: ka-RUMPH! 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. The crowds quickly grew; people threw money in the air for good luck. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. The young commando Abdul Rashid, quickly rose through the ranks. However, the mission quickly changed and became about convincing ethnic leaders (some were more similar to warlords) to join forces with them to fight their common enemy: the Taliban and its Al Qaeda allies. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. In 1996, when the Taliban rolled into Kabul, Dostum was forced to retreat to his stronghold in Mazar as the mullahs instituted their version of a pure Islamic state. -The Fayetteville Observer. A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. 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). Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. No more Taliban. 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. Like in the movie, Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers describes Nutsch going to Colonel Bowers after the attacks to ask to be placed with his team again. 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. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. It was old-fashioned professionalism. A small group of CIA that included Mike Spann, flew in to the Darra-e Suf the day before ODA 595 would land. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Although nighttime gunfire is normal in Afghanistan, there is an urgency to the sound of the deep explosions that come from the 19th-century fortress of Qala Jangi, just over a mile east from Khoda Barq, a Soviet-era apartment complex west of Mazar. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. The U.S. refused to work with Dostum until former UN envoy Charlie Santos pointed out to the CIA that the only functioning fighting group besidesthe Panjshiris ofMassoud wereDostums Uzbeks. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. On September 11, 2001, Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha 595, moves into a new home with his wife and daughter after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. Once we hit Keshendeh-ye Bala, we picked up a road and followed it north in a truck Dostums men had captured from the Taliban. They reach out to shake his hand, to embrace him. I thought the guy was this ruthless warlord, one soldier says. Contact Us In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. Dont I know you? one of them says. . This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. '12 Strong' battles for hearts and minds - Boston Herald -NPR, No. 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. In a village on the outskirts of Balkh, the convoy rumbles to a halt near an ancient castle that is now a rounded mound of tan mud. Americas finest were about to fight their first war on horseback in more than a hundred years. This is where Alexander ruled, where Zoroaster was born, where Buddhists came on pilgrimages, a center of art, poetry, and study where lions were hunted and where Genghis Khan came to conquer. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. The info I had was that he was MIA, Mark says. 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. This included using horses to navigate the mountainous region. 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. The trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. The money was hardly enough for feeding my horses, Dostum says. The conflict began with several hundred Taliban troops moving into positions on an adjacent hill. 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. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. 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. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. When I look at the terrible conditions and the predicament that Walker is in, I have to ask him if this is what he expected. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. All I see is brown dirt and men on donkeys leading camels along the road. 12 Strong Best Quotes - 'We're on our own.' - MovieQuotesandMore Lined up against a wall is the most pathetic display of humanity I have ever seen: the survivors of the bunker at Qala Jangi fortress. The dirty gray mushroom cloud slowly bends in the wind. We grabbed our stuff and ran., The team knew that their story would be stolen, rewritten and misused as Rumsfeld and others seized the moment. 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. The 12 Strong movie has Chris Hemsworth's character (Mark Nutsch in real life) being given the candy-bar-sized piece of metal by Colonel Mulholland. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. In the last two semi-wars we have been in, every time American soldiers get killed we pull out. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. America was fully committed to defeating the Taliban and ousting them from power. 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. He lies staring at the ceiling. It is also rumored that there are many dead and at least two live prisoners holed up in the subterranean bomb shelter. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. The team was under orders not to talk to journalists. Power is not given to anyone forever. Within hours, they are gone. At the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. The team was ordered to exile to meet Donald Rumsfeld and be interviewed by Robin Moore. Surprisingly Dostum agreed. Commandeering whole villages, women in burkas with not even eyes showing, the stoning of a woman only for being caught in adultery, and the execution of a mother for daring to teach her daughters to read. The credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . 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. Paul points to a misty, triangular peak that forms one side of the gap. -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. 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. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. The pilots, however, could not lock in on the laser-sighting device that the team was using to identify the target. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. Where you from? The man finally answers. Although I spoke out on behalf of the team the media, didntpublish my eyewitness photos and testimony because it would go against a narrative thata Pashtun backed by a European-backed central government must rule Kabul, not a coalition of regional leaders.We did not want the Taliban voting themselves back into power, yet we restrained the grass roots power of the ethnic minorities. Our Team All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. When noon comes and goes, I expect the order to fire. You felt the air leave. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. 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 . You call in an airplane; you say, Can you see that place? Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, is moving into a new home with his wife and daughter on September 11, 2001, after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. The men know their story and I wrote it down. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. You know: You better not show any weakness. 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. First arrival on the Observation Post. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. 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. After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. 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. After the seventh grade, Dostum left school to help his father on the family farm. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. In the movie, another team member arrives to pick them up and tells them about the attacks. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. Battle of Bescham | Historica Wiki | Fandom They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. What '12 Strong' Tells Us about Afghanistan - The National Interest Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. Open your eyes! Now we hope that America will not be cruel to the Afghan people.. Since I was a guest of General Dostum it was a little difficult for the men to avoid me. It's true that Dostum said that he would rather see 500 of his own men killed than see a scratch on an American soldier. He would take a village by getting the mounted guys up close. It was indeed as much of a surprise to the real team as it is in the movie. 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. At night we sit around talking over stainless steel cups of coffee. 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. Yes, and that's why Gen. Dostum kept the American soldiers back from the front lines at first. The movie isn't revealing anything new. It's a miracle of sorts given what they faced, a feat that the movie does a good job conveying. I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood. Yes, but the tagline is a bit of an exaggeration. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. He rolls in a John Wayne walk to Commander Lal, whos in charge of the standoff. He takes my hand in a meaty grip and apologizes for being dirty and tired; he has just driven eight hours on a shattered road from Kunduz. Astoundingly, after two days of bombardment, the prisoners still control the fort. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. (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. The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. Here Spann interviews Lindh but Lindh remains silent. There is an emotional landscape here I cannot see. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. A local mullah sings a prayer of deliverance and thanks to Dostum. In Hollywood I was asked to join meetings during which actors and producers pitched the story, read half a dozen books in which the idea of John Wayne like cavalry charges and Dostums ogre like cruelty were fictionalized into cartoons. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. So we haven't even taken the southern part of the country and we're still working with the Northern Alliance. But I never travel without a few Mr. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. Weve spent years apart from our spouses due to Middle East deployments, and some of us, like me, are now sending our sons and daughters to fight the same war in the same places. 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. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. They sit patiently for hours, clutching tiny pieces of paper, seeking his aid. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. They told us, If Dostum wants to go to Kabul, you are going with him. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Three or four bombs hit right in the middle of the enemy position, says Will. I head downstairs and discover a group of soldiers bantering cheerfully, mostly in southern accents. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Toward the end of September, the word came down: Pack your shit., Fifteen days later, the team boarded a C-5 Galaxy with a secret flight plan. Somehow I make it across the open area. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. Only Paul and Andy are able to appreciate what happened here. I targeted a spot right next to this guys head. The 12 Strong true story confirms that he had been given an administrative staff position in the Fifth Group Headquarters. So we would put in for priority for the planes. The teams primary weapons were not pistols or rifles; they were the most fearsome tools in the American arsenal: F-18s, F-16s, F-14s, and B-52s. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. The Real Story of General Dostum and 12 Strong Green Berets 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. Newsletter The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. The CIA provided intel on which ethnic leaders to work with, including Afghan General Rashid Dostum. 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. But the story gradually emerges. There are tanks. 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. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. My attempts to convince the Afghans took place in a building in which men with dark beards sat in from of Tony Montana style palm tree sunset wall paper murals. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. Some huddle together to watch the gray pillars of smoke from the bombing runs. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. 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. John, he says. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. 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. The rest mounted up and rode north. Questioning, sad children. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. 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. The Taliban are running. It was the finest sight I ever saw. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. Staying off the roads and in the wilds, they could swoop down andattackthe Taliban but could not hold the ground. Meanwhile, Im hunkered down, waiting for Dostum. 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. 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. His father is old. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. 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. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" After a while we soon got along. Ill admit, my guard was up, as I dont expect even-handed treatment of military-heavy stories these days. We could see a bunch of Taliban come out of another bunker complex off to the south and disappear behind a hill. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. By the time the team had arrived in Qali-i-Jangi they were gaunt, sick but eager to keep up the fight. General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Captain Mark Nutsch achieved this unexpected success in November 2001 by breaking out of a rebel pocket of the Hindu Kush Mountains and seizing Mazar i Sharif,. 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. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! Rashid later admitted that not only did he not witness it but it the event wasfictional. We roll past weathered villages unchanged in two millennia. 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. "I need to be back on my team. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. We jumped in the back of a truck and drove up to Dostums HQ here in this house.. His lack of combat experience is pointed out in the movie. 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.

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