This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. The mission stopped being a secret on November 16, 2001, a mere two months after 9/11. But the story gradually emerges. In the last two semi-wars we have been in, every time American soldiers get killed we pull out. Commanders, clergymen, womenthey would all tell me very bitter stories. 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. 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. The lead horsemen disappeared behind the rocks, and the Regulators all held their breath, praying the bombs would reach the bunkers before the cavalry did. No. The Regulators flew in from Uzbekistan at night on a blacked-out Chinook helicopter. Same thing: We identity it and boom! Yes. 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. Dostum must now change his focus from fighting to rebuilding his country. 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. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. A cavalry charge is an amazing thing, Will says. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. They just cant figure it out. This is where the Taliban made their last stand. He rolls in a John Wayne walk to Commander Lal, whos in charge of the standoff. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. Yes. 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. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.. 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. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. (19 Dec 2001) 1. With assistance from US special forces soldiers from the US 5th Special Forces Group, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Northern Alliance forces were able to call in close air support against the Taliban fighters in Bescham and drive them out of the village. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. He has two weeks of beard, beetling eyebrows, and a graying brush cut. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. At least two Red Cross workers who descend into the bunker are shot and wounded. On October 7, 2001, ODA 595 arrived in Karchi-Khanabad (K2) Airfield, Uzbekistan. 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. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. He knew that he had to put in his time shuffling papers in order to move up in rank. He says it sadly. 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. It was right at dark. The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. Weve all been there. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. About 200 men have taken up positions around the village, eyeing ragged locals, who stare back from a careful distance. They have been blowing themselves up with grenades. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. we discovered that all but one of the 12 Horse Soldiers depicted in the movie were married and 10 of them had at least two kids. They also had two boys, then ages 4 and 3 (in the movie, they have a little girl). The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. Mark Nutsch and his team had to gain Dostum's trust and convince him that 9/11 had changed things. But I never travel without a few Mr. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. Mark Nutsch shares the true-life story of helping lead what is considered the most successful . ODA 555 was inserted next in the east in the Panjshir Valley, with the mission of working with ethnic Tajik fighters. Biography Mitch Nelson was born in Alma, Kansas, and he married a Hispanic woman and had a daughter. The Regulators have served in the gulf war, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and in other places they cant talk about. The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. No one individual was the model for the statue. Over the ensuing days, I take every opportunity to spend time in these makeshift barracks, particularly once I discover that this is the very unit of Green Berets that Id been hearing rumors aboutthis is Dostums covert support team. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. 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. I thought the guy was this ruthless warlord, one soldier says. 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. That group was disbanded and then re-formed in the early 1950s as Special Forces, which John F. Kennedy later nicknamed the Green Berets. 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. (Though in my opinion, much more time should have been given to family homecoming scenes!). 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. A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. 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. More than 400 prisoners are said to have died; I count only about 50 bodies in the courtyard. Before the arrival of the Americans, Dostum fought mostly at night. Paul here is busy shooting at guys. 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. 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. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. July 22, 2018. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. Right next to where I am staying. The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri refuse: They claim they dont know these people. -The Fayetteville Observer, In addition to ODA 595, three other teams were selected. Now the CIA and spec ops have been let loose., Dostums men were a loose alliance that grew with every victory against the Taliban. who will play the wife of Mitch Nelson opposite her real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth. His name, he says, is John Walker. 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. Then the war began. They were setting up fixed positionsbunkers with Y-shaped fighting trencheson the northern side of the gap. A military man and his wife hold each other, knowing they will be separated in the morning, unsure of the future. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. Power is not given to anyone forever. Its more like, I am coming to get youwhether I hit you is another story. Its Old World combat at its finest. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . Yes. Dostums real success was in negotiating enemy commanders to lay down their arms and to join him. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Images of them doing this can be seen below and in Alex Quade's short documentary Horse Soldiers of 9/11. 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. Yes. Our Team All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. On the morning of September 11, the team was returning to base after an all-night training exercise. -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. 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. 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. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . When a local singer wrote a song about Dostum, the name stuck. We did all that we could. 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. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) 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. I was sick of this guy running back and forth getting ammo. Again he began integrating mujahideen into the political military ranks among them his number two against the Taliban Lal Kamadan. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. Its a gritty reminder of who our common enemy wasone that not only strove to kill Americans, but also attempted to force its archaic way of life on whole countries. 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. 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. 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. 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). So we haven't even taken the southern part of the country and we're still working with the Northern Alliance. 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. At night we sit around talking over stainless steel cups of coffee. I dont think I will make it through this one he wrote me in an email just hours before he was gunned down on a raid in Ramadi. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. At the same moment he was trying to flee Mazar from the Taliban assault. Six months ago, he traveled to Kabul with some Pakistanis to join the Taliban. 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. 12 Strong: Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. 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. The rounds are zinging over my head. The young commando Abdul Rashid, quickly rose through the ranks. 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. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. Dont I know you? one of them says. Americas finest were about to fight their first war on horseback in more than a hundred years. 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. 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.
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