In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. At the same moment he was trying to flee Mazar from the Taliban assault. 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. 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. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. He knew that he had to put in his time shuffling papers in order to move up in rank. I'm playing Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie. At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. Perhaps theyll convince any surviving prisoners to surrender. Only Paul and Andy are able to appreciate what happened here. And waited. The next morning, about 60 Afghan cavalry came thundering into the compound. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. His name, he says, is John Walker. The movie tells the hitherto little known story of a U.S. Army Special Forces unit sent on a dangerous mission into Afghanistan mere days after 9/11. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. When the two aircraft were on location, the Green Berets radioed Alliance commanders to evacuate civilians from the area. 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. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. Washington, D.C.. Soon were winding past an ancient brick bridge that crosses a roaring gorge; on the west side are large caves that shepherds have scooped out of the soft rock over the centuries. All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. (19 Dec 2001) 1. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. Three years of drought have broken: A cold rain pours down in gray sheets. 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. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. 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. The pilots, however, could not lock in on the laser-sighting device that the team was using to identify the target. The videotape cuts to the next morning. These are two of the Taliban who chased Dostum out of Mazar in May 1997, but still he treats them more like honored guests than prisoners of war. As portrayed by actor Chris Hemsworth in the major motion picture, 12 Strong, Mark Nutsch (aka Mitch Nelson in the film) shares lessons learned in the now-declassified saga of a U.S. Special Forces team that overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to help achieve a historic military victory. Abandoned Soviet-era tanks are scattered about the flat countryside like dinosaur skeletons. Capt. 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. Blackened, twisted vehicles are perforated with thousands of jagged holes. Yes, but the tagline is a bit of an exaggeration. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. Dostum in September 2014 First Vice President of Afghanistan In office 29 September 2014 - 19 February 2020 President Ashraf Ghani Preceded by Yunus Qanuni Succeeded by Amrullah Saleh Personal details Born (1954-03-25) 25 March 1954(age 68)[1] Khwaja Du Koh, Jowzjan, Kingdom of Afghanistan Political party Junbish-e Milli Nationality Afghanistan What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. Its like a casting call for The Dirty Dozen. They have been blowing themselves up with grenades. Ka-RUMPH! 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. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. -The Fayetteville Observer. . The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. Now we hope that America will not be cruel to the Afghan people.. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. 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. 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. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. 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. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. 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,. Our commanders said they didnt know what to expect, but at least they were honest enough to admit it, the Green Beret continues. Then the morphine begins to kick in. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. We thought he was wounded. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) That group was disbanded and then re-formed in the early 1950s as Special Forces, which John F. Kennedy later nicknamed the Green Berets. Open your eyes! I target the third bunker. The men know their story and I wrote it down. Questioning, sad children. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Horse Soldiers Documentary & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. "I created the face without the use of models or photos," said artist Douwe Blumberg, who designed the statue in collaboration with Mark Nutsch. 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. At 16, he started working as a laborer in the government-owned gas refinery in nearby Sheberghan, where he dabbled in union politics. The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. They sit patiently for hours, clutching tiny pieces of paper, seeking his aid. What happened to General Dostum in Afghanistan? After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. I feel he is my brother. Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. I know because I counted the dead bodies. One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. 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. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. Yes. 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. 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. It was like that scene in Close Encounters where the aliens meet humans for the first time, one soldier says later. We did all that we could. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. He has ended the bloody battle for Kunduz by negotiating with Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri, the two most senior Taliban leaders in the north. "All of these guys have blood on their hands. 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. He also used to compete in collegiate rodeos. The truck-mounted ZU antiaircraft guns are cranked down to eye level. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. Somehow I make it across the open area. No. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. It was somewhere between harassing and accurateenough to keep our heads down. All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. This is the first close-air-support strike in years in an urban area, says Air Force Steve. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. More than 400 prisoners are said to have died; I count only about 50 bodies in the courtyard. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Then the radios are jammed with Dostums men shouting and celebrating. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" At its core, 12 Strong is not just a war movie; its a story about learning to respect the differences that separate us but also to embrace the qualities that unite us., Terms of Use We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. In the bewildering matrix of Afghan politics, Dostum has frequentlyand nimblyswitched allegiances. 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. Both of the named Green Berets are commanding officers, John Mulholland and Max Bowers. Mitch Nelson, a character based on Nutsch. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. The CIA provided intel on which ethnic leaders to work with, including Afghan General Rashid Dostum. Later, I find out that theyve come hoping to retrieve the body of Central Intelligence Agency officer Johnny Micheal Spann, who was killed by Taliban prisonersthe first American combat casualty in Afghanistan. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. The Regulators have served in the gulf war, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and in other places they cant talk about. Yes. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. 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. There are twelve Green Berets here and two Air Force forward air controllers. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. Then theres Steve, a well-mannered southern medic; Pete, the burly chaw spitter; Mark, their blond, midwestern captain; and so on. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. A few minutes later, one of Dostums men runs up breathlessly, saying there is an American in the hospital.
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