There were roughly 200 paid Afghan soldiers under General Dostum's command and an undetermined number of part-time militia. 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. After the bombs hit, I peeked over the side of the bunker; our horses were gone. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. It's a miracle of sorts given what they faced, a feat that the movie does a good job conveying. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. Now three weeks later the war was supposed to be over. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. Before the arrival of the Americans, Dostum fought mostly at night. 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. 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. I grab my cameras and ask Bill, a pensive Green Beret medic, to come with me. 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. 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. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. I head downstairs and discover a group of soldiers bantering cheerfully, mostly in southern accents. 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. 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. Once they hit the ground, the Regulators would be writing their own game plan. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. We had unrestricted movement into the gap, which gave us the high ground.. I assumed he was fricking mean, hard. 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. We called in a couple of bomb strikes. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). Over the next few weeks I privately coin for him a nickname based on the medias fear and his in person good humor: I call him Heavy D, after the 1980s rapper. According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. Ironically, he actually served under the man he is portraying. 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. Some are provided by Dostum and others. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." 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. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. A wife buried shoulders deep in her oven, scrubbing it out as if her life depends on it, as if it will make any sort of difference in whats coming (Angry cleaning, I call it.). Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I could see the horses blasting out the other side. 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. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. Its a helluva thing we do, isnt it? War drama directed by Nicolai Fuglsig which is inspired by true events and is set days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. Their closest call came toward the end of the campaign, before theyd reached the Tingi Pass; Id gotten an account of it last night from Mike, a big, bearded, soft-spoken soldier. Dostums lieutenants would call him in Turkey and tell him how difficult life had become. Meanwhile, Im hunkered down, waiting for Dostum. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. I will let what you see be the truth.. 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 sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. The mystery of missing prisoners was never matched up to the careful medical records kept of each al Qaeda and Taliban detainee kept by doctors and local NGOs. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. The Afghans shoot from horseback, but there is no aiming in this country. But the story gradually emerges. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). They range in age from mid-20s to early 40s. 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. We must honor their truth not the fiction that creates more wars. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. The bomb lands and hits and bam! Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. Dostum implores the mullahs to call down to the bunker and tell the remaining men to surrender. 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. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. We roll past weathered villages unchanged in two millennia. His father is old. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. 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. Others have speculated that the filmmakers changed some of the names to diversify the Special Forces team for the movie, but that has not been confirmed. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. Then came September 11. His lack of combat experience is pointed out in the movie. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. By the time the team had arrived in Qali-i-Jangi they were gaunt, sick but eager to keep up the fight. "They weirdly are a formidable force that will continue to fight, no matter what.". An old man yells, God bless you. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. The Green Berets call it the Gap of Doom. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. Now, Cpt. Moments later Mike would be murdered by prisoners. 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 rocket howls over the roof of General Dostums house in Khoda Barq at about 10 p.m. Its November 26, my second day in Afghanistan, and already Im in the middle of a hellacious firefight. Yes, and that's why Gen. Dostum kept the American soldiers back from the front lines at first. We will never end wars if we dont understand how to win them. The rest of the time they travel. So, I'm playing my old boss in the movie." Mullah Faizel, commander of the Taliban Army in the North. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. The greatest restrictions they face have been placed on them by Dostum himself. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. The tape now shows Dostum, leaning against a mud wall, watching through large binoculars. "Very Good," replied Dostum. Paul, Andy, and I drive past villages of round, domed huts, past a checkpoint manned by Dostums men, and up along the winding road to the Tingi Pass. 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. Yes. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. 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. They had tanks, air force, and artillery. Only Paul and Andy are able to appreciate what happened here. However, one was dropped due to a lack of confidence in the team. 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 movie isn't revealing anything new. I targeted a spot right next to this guys head. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. They told us, If Dostum wants to go to Kabul, you are going with him. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. When the pilot radioed that he needed to return to base, the other pilot swung into action. 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. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. 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. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. Airstrikes, AC130s and Hazara guards had killed all but 86 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Washington, D.C.. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. Its a high, lonely place. 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. The steel gate to the guest house opens, and Dostum strolls out, hands in pockets, and is ushered into a black Audi Quattro with tinted windows. 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. An event and a man I will never forget. They reach out to shake his hand, to embrace him. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. Nothing of the war, death, exile, and victory that have shaped the man sitting in the front seat. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. 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. Some huddle together to watch the gray pillars of smoke from the bombing runs. They had to kill their horses for food. 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. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. Dostum has not been home in five years to the village of Khvajeh Do Kuh. There is an emotional landscape here I cannot see. 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. Bill and the team were wearing armor decorated with my logo when he died. Yes, but the tagline is a bit of an exaggeration. Under intense pressure, the Regulators had called in a perfect surgical strikea bomb drop in a crowded urban area without a single civilian casualty. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. 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. 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 the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. Here Spann interviews Lindh but Lindh remains silent. 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. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. "The threat of capture, torture was very real." After the American bombing campaign decimated their forces, Walker and members of his unit fled on foot nearly a hundred miles west to Kunduzall for nothing, as it turned out. Dostum dismounted and shook everyones hand, then sat on a mound covered with carpets. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. After a while we soon got along. Theyve just finished installing a satellite TV. 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 heavy shooting, the worried soldiers, the rapid radio chatterall signal that something ugly is going on over there. Yes. 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. They just cant figure it out. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. So, I worked for him, directly," says Riggle. Yes. When war first came to Afghanistan, two decades ago, he built his first stronghold here to guard the village. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. It was about this time that Abdul Rashid became Dostum. In Uzbek, dost means friend; dostum means my friend. It was a nickname that the young soldier was given for his habitual way of addressing people. On 19 October . 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. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. Whoever gets the high ground first wins the wars here. From their perch on the east side of the gorge, the Green Berets could shoot directly into the trenches of the Taliban. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. 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. Mitch Miller died on July 31, 2010 of natural causes. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. Outmanned, the Green Berets decided to move out on horseback. 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. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. 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. 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. 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. Mitch Nelson, a character based on Nutsch. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. 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. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. He never sacrificed his men. 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. He waves the accomplishment aside with a shy smile even as he promises to introduce me to his new trophiesthe mullahs. 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. The CIA had begun to work with Massouds people in October of 1999 hoping to pay him to kill Osama bin Laden. The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. However, he had been deployed in the Middle East and around the globe. In real life, they learned of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center over the truck's radio on their way back to the base. ), 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. 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 real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Down below, small Afghan horses are nipping the dry grass on the safe side of the hill, their riders chatting while awaiting the order to charge. I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. It is also rumored that there are many dead and at least two live prisoners holed up in the subterranean bomb shelter. 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. Right next to where I am staying. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. In the back, a doctor leans over a man with a smoke-blackened face, wild black hair, and an unkempt beard. Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. Dostums men are touring the battle scene. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. 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 the morning of September 11, the team was returning to base after an all-night training exercise. 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. What your name? The Horse Soldiers monument in New York City is not based on any one person. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. 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. "There was nothing built up," Mark Nutsch said.

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