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. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. 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. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. 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. "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. 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. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. I feel he is my brother. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. The bomb lands and hits and bam! I convince the staff to move him to an upstairs bed, where Bill inserts an IV of Hespan into the mans dehydrated body to increase blood circulation. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. Then the war began. In the movie, another team member arrives to pick them up and tells them about the attacks. Advertise You can bomb it until there is no resistance, or you bomb and, as soon as the bomb goes off, you charge. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. 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. 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 send off steam in the cold night, their brown skin white with dust. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." 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. 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 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. Abandoned Soviet-era tanks are scattered about the flat countryside like dinosaur skeletons. -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. 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. Dostums men kick the corpses into the trenches and cover them with the tan dirt, not bothering to count the dead. 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. At first, their mission was one of personnel recovery, tasked with rescuing any pilots shot down during the air war in Afghanistan. At first he is hostile, like a kitten baring its claws. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. He waves the accomplishment aside with a shy smile even as he promises to introduce me to his new trophiesthe mullahs. He did have trouble getting off his horse, and like in the movie, the medic gave him something for the pain. You felt the air leave. 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. 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 . Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. 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. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. Its a high, lonely place. 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 are alive thanks to you. As Dostum stands on the porch, looking at the place of his birth, he chokes up. Ill admit, my guard was up, as I dont expect even-handed treatment of military-heavy stories these days. The rounds are zinging over my head. They observed how the film production was set up and talked to some of the actors, but they were never hired as consultants. Were not lifting our heads up!, When we turn around and notice whats going on, we see our Afghans have split., The team decided to call in a B-52 strike practically on their own positiona drastic move considering the planes were flying above 15,000 feet. Now, Cpt. 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. Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. It moves past politics and rhetoric to provide a picture of what our military members choose to go through willingly. The movie isn't revealing anything new. As he leans into the Afghan wind, the light falls, and a moment in history fades. He has two weeks of beard, beetling eyebrows, and a graying brush cut. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. -The Fayetteville Observer. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Horse Soldiers Documentary & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. They were all quitting demanding to be sent to other units rather than put up with new commander ideas on what soldiering was. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. 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 . Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. We jumped in the back of a truck and drove up to Dostums HQ here in this house.. 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. We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. That I am kind and gentle? He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. Only two characters in 12 Strong . Yes. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. 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. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. On October 7, 2001, ODA 595 arrived in Karchi-Khanabad (K2) Airfield, Uzbekistan. Finally, the pilot says he has the target in sight. Their captors brought them here en route to the Sheberghan prison. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. The CIA gave us a briefing. Although the Regulators were among the first, other small teams of U.S. forces would soon be airlifted in for similar missions, a response to Dostums request for American assistance to be sent to other Northern Alliance commanders. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. 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. The pilots, however, could not lock in on the laser-sighting device that the team was using to identify the target. General Abdul Rashid Dostum is a man who has rarely been interviewed but has often been typecast as a brutal warlordusually because of his reputation for winning. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. John, he says. I suggest to Bill that we remove Walker from the hospital, where he might be killed by other patients, many of whom were fighting against him at the fortress. It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. It's a miracle of sorts given what they faced, a feat that the movie does a good job conveying. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. Somehow I make it across the open area. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. There are tanks. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. It was September 12, 2003. Power is not given to anyone forever. 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. Rashid later admitted that not only did he not witness it but it the event wasfictional. 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. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. 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. Mark Nutsch shares the true-life story of helping lead what is considered the most successful . Im looking through the optics while rounds are zinging all around us. At this point in the tale, Mike nodded toward Paul, who was sitting next to him on the couch at Dostums guest house. ", Yes. When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. "We slept on the ground the first couple of nights." Moments later Mike would be murdered by prisoners. The team was under orders not to talk to journalists. 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. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. After the seventh grade, Dostum left school to help his father on the family farm. 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. Both of the named Green Berets are commanding officers, John Mulholland and Max Bowers. Dostum must now change his focus from fighting to rebuilding his country. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. "For all of our teams, the risk was extraordinary," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. Our mission was simple, another soldier says. Our commanders said they didnt know what to expect, but at least they were honest enough to admit it, the Green Beret continues. An event and a man I will never forget. "I created the face without the use of models or photos," said artist Douwe Blumberg, who designed the statue in collaboration with Mark Nutsch. Airstrikes, AC130s and Hazara guards had killed all but 86 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. He wont tell me who to contact, or provide any information that would get him out of the crudely equipped hospital. You see this grid? Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. 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. 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.). 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. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. Interestingly, actor Chris Hemsworth's real-life wife, Elsa Pataky, portrays his character's wife in the movie. The soldiers stay well away from the al Qaeda prisoners as I interview them. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, on the decision to make the movie: Remarkably enough, there have been very few films made about the Armys Special Forces. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. The greatest restrictions they face have been placed on them by Dostum himself. As the Hespan drips into his veins, I fire up the video camera, and the man begins to tell his story. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" In an effort to trim Dostums control the CIA would insist that rival commander Ustad Atta Mohammed get his own Green Beret escort several weeks later as he raced Dostum to claim Mazar. The young commando Abdul Rashid, quickly rose through the ranks. They linked up with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Uzbek fighters. -The Fayetteville Observer, In addition to ODA 595, three other teams were selected. This story needed to be shared with the rest of the country. 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. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. The Turks, long staunch enemies of Islamic extremism, contributed a small sum as well, and, on April 22, 2001, General Dostum and 30 men were ferried into northern Afghanistan on Massouds aging Soviet helicopters. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. 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. Weve all been there. Dostums meetings do not end until well after midnight. 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. 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. I am surprised, then, to see Dostum wrap his blue turban around his head and chin and stride into the village . Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. Every time the plane would circle, the Taliban would run behind their bunker. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. 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. On the morning of September 11, the team was returning to base after an all-night training exercise. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. 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. After the bombs hit, I peeked over the side of the bunker; our horses were gone. Open your eyes! His men rounded up vehicles that the Taliban had left behind, and Heavy D entered the city as a conquering hero, standing through the sunroof of a Toyota Land Cruiser. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. Yes. It seems that the brutal warlord has engineered the biggest peaceful surrender in recent Afghan historymore than 5,000 Afghan Taliban fighters and foreign volunteers laid down their arms. Then came September 11. "There was nothing built up," Mark Nutsch said. Dostums real success was in negotiating enemy commanders to lay down their arms and to join him. It was like that scene in Close Encounters where the aliens meet humans for the first time, one soldier says later. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The dirty gray mushroom cloud slowly bends in the wind. Dostum, portrayed brilliantly by Navid Negahban, comes off as a kind of Obi Wan Kenobi, the ancient-wisdom-dispensing warrior. Up on the parapets, Dostums troops stream toward a gap in the ramparts created yesterday by an errant American 2000 lb bomb. 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,. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. They said, You guys will be on the ground; you figure it out. , Within half an hour of meeting Dostum at the mud-walled compound in the Darra-e Suf, the Regulators swung into action. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Three or four bombs hit right in the middle of the enemy position, says Will. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. At eight that night, we pulled in to Shulgareh, which is the biggest town in the valley. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. Hemsworth plays Capt. They had to kill their horses for food. His father is old. We accepted a huge amount of risk." Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. Dostums men load RPGs and check their ammo drums. An old man yells, God bless you. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. Before the arrival of the Americans, Dostum fought mostly at night. . I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. But the story gradually emerges. 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. As we approach the village, the men and boys are lined up in a perfect row a hundred yards long, waiting to greet Dostum. Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. You raise your flag," Nelson says. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) There were roughly 200 paid Afghan soldiers under General Dostum's command and an undetermined number of part-time militia. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. About 200 men have taken up positions around the village, eyeing ragged locals, who stare back from a careful distance. Its more like, I am coming to get youwhether I hit you is another story. Its Old World combat at its finest. We wind through the tight pass alongside a swollen mountain river, go over the pass, then head a kilometer down the south side of the divide and stop at a freshly mudded house. Its an irresistible story, made all the more so by a convincing rumor Ive been hearing since my arrival: that Dostum triumphed with a little help from his friendsspecifically, the Green Berets. Paul picks up the story, raindrops dotting his gold-rimmed, government-issue glasses. In 2014, General Dostum became Vice President of Afghanistan. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. The team set up on the roof of a building about 400 meters from the madrasah and called in a strike. "It's your city, general. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. 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. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. 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. And that is a story worth telling. The Uzbeks and Hazara took to the mountains to escape the mechanized columns of the Taliban, Those among Dostums men who had remained in Afghanistan now became guerrilla fighters, moving on horseback holed up in the mountains under the command of his former number two La. They put the prisoners back on the truck. 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. 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