Dostums real success was in negotiating enemy commanders to lay down their arms and to join him. At the last minute the Agency was told by the SF ground commander that his men were going in with or without the Agency. Its a high, lonely place. Sidelined, and in exile in Turkey, In 2009, Dostum was begged by President Karzai to come back from exile to reelect him and again in 2014 Dostum engineered the victory ofPresidentGhani.only to go back into exile. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. A typical meal at Dostums guesthouse. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. 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. "When I went to Afghanistan, I reported to Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers. 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. However, it's hard to imagine that was the case with the 12 Strong movie, since Nutsch has become a fairly well-known public figure. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, is moving into a new home with his wife and daughter on September 11, 2001, after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. Now, on most mornings, Dostum emerges from his house, squinting into a crowd of turbaned men waiting for an audience. He lies staring at the ceiling. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. Privacy Policy There were some deep unresolved internal conflicts because of the death of Mike Spann and why they over their protests had been sent to Kunduz. He freely admits that in two decades of war, abuses have been committed by the troops of every commander. Up on the parapets, Dostums troops stream toward a gap in the ramparts created yesterday by an errant American 2000 lb bomb. 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. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. I could see the horses blasting out the other side. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. Yes. However, one was dropped due to a lack of confidence in the team. But the story gradually emerges. A day laterThursday, five days since the uprising broke outthey are still firing sporadically at soldiers removing bodies from the courtyard of the fortress. No one knew just when or where the team would be sent. 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. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. 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. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. ODA 595 followed by ODA 555 were the first two teams to have boots on the ground in Afghanistan following 9/11. Two of the Green Berets Ive been chatting withAndy and Paul, the pair with the longest tenure in the companyhave decided that I need to see this place for myself, or maybe simply that they need to go see it again one last time. They are known as the quiet professionals because their missions are covert and, for obvious reasons, they rarely publicize their exploits., Actor and producer Thad Luckinbill commented on the need to just be authentic and pay these guys the respect that they deserve and tell the story that should be told., One of the most fascinating threads throughout the movie is the forging of an uneasy partnership between Captain Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth) and Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban). 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. 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. 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. 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. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. This is the back jacket of The Hunt for Bin Laden ghostwritten by the late Jack Idema and published as non fiction by Random House editor Bob Loomis. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. "All of these guys have blood on their hands. They had to kill their horses for food. 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. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. He wont tell me who to contact, or provide any information that would get him out of the crudely equipped hospital. They just cant figure it out. "And to me, that was a plus when you got saddled with a mission that was going to be as complex as this one." Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. 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 credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . 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. -The Fayetteville Observer. "Sir," he said. 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. Moments later Mike would be murdered by prisoners. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). Compliance. Rashid later admitted that not only did he not witness it but it the event wasfictional. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. They were setting up fixed positionsbunkers with Y-shaped fighting trencheson the northern side of the gap. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. -The Fayetteville Observer, ODA 595 was an experienced, mature team of Green Berets that had recently worked with special operations forces in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan's northern neighbor. The general gets out of the car and goes down the line, trying to embrace and talk to each person, but it is getting dark. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. Officials had been unaware that Dostum's army still used a horse cavalry. 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. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. As we drive through a drought-ravaged wasteland, he points out battlefields and the sites of ambushes and skirmishes. When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. Spotlighting a Special Forces unit that went to Afghanistan soon after 9/11 to hunt and destroy al-Qaeda, "12 Strong" follows this dirty dozen led by Hemsworth's "Capt. Now the CIA and spec ops have been let loose., Dostums men were a loose alliance that grew with every victory against the Taliban. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. Yes. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. At 16, he started working as a laborer in the government-owned gas refinery in nearby Sheberghan, where he dabbled in union politics. Mitch Nelson, scanned the dark landscape around the landing zone. Wrapped in blankets, members of the mullahs entourage fix me with soulless stares. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. They have been blowing themselves up with grenades. Fittingly, a lot of the actors in the movie had very little or no experience on a horse as well, so there wasn't very much acting needed to convey the team's lack of experience riding horses. Nelson must convince Col. Mulholland (William Fichtner) that his team is ready to meet with Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. It didnt seem to matter that there was no actual evidence. In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the elite U.S. Special Forces unit, Operational Detachment-Alpha 595 (ODA 595 for short), was one of three teams of Special Forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan. The Taliban are running. 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. 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. The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. We begged, Mark says, but we were told to stay away. (In the end, the Regulators wouldnt get clearance to enter Qala Jangi until the uprising was over. Santos pointed out that with Massoud dead, and no Pashtun resistance, Dostum was Americas only hope. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. 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. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. You can bomb it until there is no resistance, or you bomb and, as soon as the bomb goes off, you charge. Staying off the roads and in the wilds, they could swoop down andattackthe Taliban but could not hold the ground. Now we hope that America will not be cruel to the Afghan people.. But 9/11 changed all that. If the U.S. Special Forces team didnt work together with General Dostum and his militia, they would have had no chance against the tens of thousands of Taliban fighters. 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. First arrival on the Observation Post. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. Their captors brought them here en route to the Sheberghan prison. The dirty gray mushroom cloud slowly bends in the wind. The men know their story and I wrote it down. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. At least two Red Cross workers who descend into the bunker are shot and wounded. And that ended the resistance. As the three of us climb back into our vehicle, I glance at the battlefield. It's a miracle of sorts given what they faced, a feat that the movie does a good job conveying. They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. "They weirdly are a formidable force that will continue to fight, no matter what.". He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Mullah Faizel, commander of the Taliban Army in the North. A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. 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. Interestingly, actor Chris Hemsworth's real-life wife, Elsa Pataky, portrays his character's wife in the movie. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. An odd case of alack of evidence being brought forward as the evidence. He takes me to the hilltop above the village. We had unrestricted movement into the gap, which gave us the high ground.. In the back, a doctor leans over a man with a smoke-blackened face, wild black hair, and an unkempt beard. Not exactly. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. 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. Mitch Nelson, a character based on Nutsch. 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. I target the third bunker. But I never travel without a few Mr. It was the finest sight I ever saw. 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. The CIA had begun to work with Massouds people in October of 1999 hoping to pay him to kill Osama bin Laden. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. Astoundingly, after two days of bombardment, the prisoners still control the fort. Nothing of the war, death, exile, and victory that have shaped the man sitting in the front seat. The tape now shows Dostum, leaning against a mud wall, watching through large binoculars. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. 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. You felt the air leave. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Bill finds a shrapnel wound in the emaciated mans right upper thigh and wounds from grenade shrapnel in his back; he also finds that part of the second toe on his left foot has been shot away. The baby was born early while Mark was in Afghanistan. Its three weeks after the madrasah bombing, and word has come down that 3,000 Taliban are still occupying the city and environs of Balkh, Alexander the Greats old walled capital, a few miles west of Mazar. Afghans in a blue truck are scavenging for parts. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. A small group of CIA that included Mike Spann, flew in to the Darra-e Suf the day before ODA 595 would land. Where you from? The man finally answers. 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. I assumed he was fricking mean, hard. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. There are twelve Green Berets here and two Air Force forward air controllers. And waited. Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. 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. But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. They were all quitting demanding to be sent to other units rather than put up with new commander ideas on what soldiering was. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. The twisted rag doll bodies of dead Taliban fighters lie heads back, fingers clutched, legs sprawled as if they fell running. John, he says. The young commando Abdul Rashid, quickly rose through the ranks. Some details of their mission they cant discuss. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. Then the concussion: ka-RUMPH! Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. ), 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. 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. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. Some were angry then, some had been through enough wars to see what was coming. Was it ten thousand, five thousand, The actual number was around 3,500 who surrendered, another460 al Qaeda showed up at thegates of Mazar and around 250 300 died of their wounds, diseaseor suffocation during transport in the frigid weather. There was talk that the team might be split uprumors of differences with a commanding officer who didnt appreciate the traditional independence of the Green Berets. -KTLA 5 Riggle, now an actor known for his comedic performances, gave 23 years of total service to the military. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. Our Afghans are running out of ammo. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. Hemsworth plays Capt. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. The teacher giggles, his white beard shaking with joy. 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. 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. I was asked to sit on the same row as the team during his funeral. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. We accepted a huge amount of risk." He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. Toward the end of September, the word came down: Pack your shit., Fifteen days later, the team boarded a C-5 Galaxy with a secret flight plan. However, the rugged Afghan terrain forced them to adopt the rudimentary practices of the Afghan horse soldiers. 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. But back in 2001, Warlord Dostum who was head of the Jumbesh political party had simpler but identical goals: Align with the U.S. to return from exile in Turkey and bring the Taliban into the new government. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. The risk they were taking was indeed that great. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. And that he became the first Afghan commander to take over a major city when he entered Mazar-e Sharif on November 10. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. They also had two boys, then ages 4 and 3 (in the movie, they have a little girl). The truck-mounted ZU antiaircraft guns are cranked down to eye level. (19 Dec 2001) 1. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. Meanwhile, Im hunkered down, waiting for Dostum. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. Shannon's character is wounded in the movie for dramatic effect. 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. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. Dostum dismounted and shook everyones hand, then sat on a mound covered with carpets. 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. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. (Though in my opinion, much more time should have been given to family homecoming scenes!). CHRIS HEMSWORTH, left, as Captain Mitch Nelson and NAVID NEGAHBAN as General Dostum in "12 STRONG," (Warner Bros. Pictures) CHRIS HEMSWORTH as Captain Mitch Nelson in "12 STRONG." (David James) Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. As the Hespan drips into his veins, I fire up the video camera, and the man begins to tell his story. 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. 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. On the morning of September 11, the team was returning to base after an all-night training exercise. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. Early in the afternoon on November 10, Dostum reached Mazar. (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.