A clock sounds loudly. 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. 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. Dostums real success was in negotiating enemy commanders to lay down their arms and to join him. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. Its an important part of our countrys history and an amazing story of courage, brothers in arms, and the reasons we ended up in Afghanistan in the first place. In 2012, to honor their extraordinary heroism, a statue of a Horse Soldier was dedicated at the World Trade Center site." . "If they got in trouble, there was very little I could do and nothing I could do quickly. Nutsch commented: Were humbled that a movie has been made about our teams mission in that pivotal post 9/11 period. Not exactly. People demanded that I do something, says Dostum. 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. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. The riders mount their horses, check their weapons, and begin the one-kilometer sprint to the Taliban front lines. It was the finest sight I ever saw. Santos pointed out that with Massoud dead, and no Pashtun resistance, Dostum was Americas only hope. The pilots, however, could not lock in on the laser-sighting device that the team was using to identify the target. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. The Taliban are running. Furthermore, as shown in the movie, they were grossly outnumbered. Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. They reach out to shake his hand, to embrace him. Theyd heard rumors that he was 80 years old, that he didnt have use of his right arm. 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 trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. 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. When the two aircraft were on location, the Green Berets radioed Alliance commanders to evacuate civilians from the area. Both of the named Green Berets are commanding officers, John Mulholland and Max Bowers. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. When noon comes and goes, I expect the order to fire. What your name? 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. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. 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. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. Abdul Rashid Dostum - Wikipedia I targeted a spot right next to this guys head. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. 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. 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. At night we sit around talking over stainless steel cups of coffee. We had hardened fighters holed up in the middle of an urban area who wanted to die, says Will. 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. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. Our warhad been big footed by Iraq. '12 Strong' turns heroic tale into generic war movie I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The old creed is that we never leave a guy behind. The Regulators wanted to find the prisoners who had killed Spann and attacked a second CIA man who was questioning the Taliban. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. They had tanks, air force, and artillery. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. Right next to where I am staying. 12 Strong (2018) - IMDb They had to kill their horses for food. 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,. He talked for half an hour. 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. There are twelve Green Berets here and two Air Force forward air controllers. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. They were all quitting demanding to be sent to other units rather than put up with new commander ideas on what soldiering was. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. The greatest restrictions they face have been placed on them by Dostum himself. 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. Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. He described the building we were sitting on to a T. Finally, Air Force Steve guided the pilot to the correct building, and he dropped the ordnance: direct hit. Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. Nutsch was the commander of the 12-man Green Berets from 5th Special Forces Group on a mission to Afghanistan in the weeks after 9/11 terrorist attacks. The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. As he leans into the Afghan wind, the light falls, and a moment in history fades. The crowds quickly grew; people threw money in the air for good luck. "The threat of capture, torture was very real." He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. Its a high, lonely place. He brings the mullahs along, to show them the havoc incited by their foreign volunteers. The risk they were taking was indeed that great. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. 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. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. -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. Only Paul and Andy are able to appreciate what happened here. They landed near a mud-walled compound in the remote Darra-e Suf valley in northern Afghanistan. Captain Mark Nutsch, Special Forces commander on the mission and Chief Warrant Officer Bob Pennington, the real-life counterparts to the roles played by Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, were both on set to ensure accuracy in the movies portrayal. Staying off the roads and in the wilds, they could swoop down andattackthe Taliban but could not hold the ground. Its like a casting call for The Dirty Dozen. "My men are hungry. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. 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. Is 12 Strong a Real Story? Ending Explained, and More The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. 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 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. Of course, war is cruel and brutal; any person who has ever read a single page of history understands the unfortunate necessity and commonality of war in all cultures, in all countries around . 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. 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. How do you love your family and leave them to go to war? 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. to talk. Since he cant speak Urdu, he was assigned to the Arab-speaking branch of Ansar (the helpers), a faction that Walker claims is sponsored by Osama bin Ladenwhom Walker says he saw many times in the training camps and on the front lines. The truck-mounted ZU antiaircraft guns are cranked down to eye level. 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. It didnt seem to matter that there was no actual evidence. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. No more Taliban. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. However, with regard to making sure the movie didn't veer too far from the true story, only two members of the original ODA-595 detachment visited the set for a total of 2.5 days. "I need to be back on my team. I grab my cameras and ask Bill, a pensive Green Beret medic, to come with me. Hemsworth and Negahban convey the tension between the two men brilliantly, and Negahban had this to say: This was the first film that truly shows what Afghans went through and how we united with them to achieve our goal.. As for why the names were changed, one article stated that the studio did not want to have to pay all of the real-life people for the rights to use their names. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. 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. 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. 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. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. After a while we soon got along. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." 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. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. 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. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. Later that week, Dostum casually mentions that 3,000 other foreign fighters from the surrender at Kunduz are in a Soviet-era prison in the city of Sheberghan, 80 miles west. 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. Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. Mark Nutsch shares the true-life story of helping lead what is considered the most successful . I ride in the warlords communications truck, a white Land Cruiser. The team was ordered to exile to meet Donald Rumsfeld and be interviewed by Robin Moore. 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. 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. Power is not given to anyone forever. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. Within hours, they are gone. Dostum implores the mullahs to call down to the bunker and tell the remaining men to surrender. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. 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. My memorable experience as cast member of 12 Story They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. Once they hit the ground, the Regulators would be writing their own game plan. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. 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. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. -KTLA 5 Riggle, now an actor known for his comedic performances, gave 23 years of total service to the military. Horse Soldiers Analysis - eNotes.com Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. I am surprised, then, to see Dostum wrap his blue turban around his head and chin and stride into the village . 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. Mark Nutsch and his team had to gain Dostum's trust and convince him that 9/11 had changed things. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. -NPR, No. They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. Yes, but the tagline is a bit of an exaggeration. That is one of the premises Osama bin Laden operates under. Dostum wasnt about to let an American casualty put a premature end to his battle plan. ODA 595 followed by ODA 555 were the first two teams to have boots on the ground in Afghanistan following 9/11. I watch a fighter go up to the top, then crumple into a black pile of rags. As we drive, Paul tells me that, back in the U.S., even the Regulators are subject to a military culture of rules and red tape. America was fully committed to defeating the Taliban and ousting them from power. We fought for an idea, says Nuri. 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. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. (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. We called in a couple of bomb strikes. 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.
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