I'm playing Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie. Ive arranged through intermediaries to spend a month with the general, but for the past week, he has been a hundred miles east, trying to subdue Taliban forces that control the city of Kunduz. 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. Some are provided by Dostum and others. 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. 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. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. As they began unloading their gear, they were met by Afghans in turbans, their faces wrapped. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. But when he smiles, he looks like a naughty 12-year-old. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" Dostum and Mitch Nelson remain close friends to this day. None of these guys are clean actors." They reach out to shake his hand, to embrace him. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Our Team The rest mounted up and rode north. He rolls in a John Wayne walk to Commander Lal, whos in charge of the standoff. The Regulators job was to invent a new form of warfare: coordinating lightly armed horseback attacks with massive applications of American air powerall without hitting civilians or friendly forces. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. Dostums men kick the corpses into the trenches and cover them with the tan dirt, not bothering to count the dead. On October 7, 2001, ODA 595 arrived in Karchi-Khanabad (K2) Airfield, Uzbekistan. Ka-RUMPH! Dostum proves to be significantly more expansive in conversation than his scant press clippings would suggest, and hes happy to fill me in on his background. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . These soldiers, I soon realize, come from much the same background as Dostums: sons of miners, farmers, and factory workers; some are men whose only way out of poverty is the military. "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. 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. I was sick of this guy running back and forth getting ammo. Nelson commits to leading 595 into Afghanistan as word of the disastrous terrorist attacks that day breaks. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. 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. However, he had been deployed in the Middle East and around the globe. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. More hits: Tall, fat smoke plumes cast moving shadows on the grass. Since I was a guest of General Dostum it was a little difficult for the men to avoid me. 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 a helluva thing we do, isnt it? But I never travel without a few Mr. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. Outmanned, the Green Berets decided to move out on horseback. Yes. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. we discovered that all but one of the 12 Horse Soldiers depicted in the movie were married and 10 of them had at least two kids. He also used to compete in collegiate rodeos. 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. Yes, and that's why Gen. Dostum kept the American soldiers back from the front lines at first. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Six months ago, he traveled to Kabul with some Pakistanis to join the Taliban. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. "I created the face without the use of models or photos," said artist Douwe Blumberg, who designed the statue in collaboration with Mark Nutsch. However, at least 3 false starts delayed their deployment for almost a month. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. 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. . The Regulators flew in from Uzbekistan at night on a blacked-out Chinook helicopter. 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. 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. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. 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. And that ended the resistance. As the three of us climb back into our vehicle, I glance at the battlefield. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. -The Fayetteville Observer, Only two of the characters in the film actually have the same names as their real-life Green Beret counterparts. 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 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. In the words of director Nicolai Fuglsig: This is a movie where you can rally around both the Americans and the Afghans because, together, they took an epic ride into the mouth of hell. As we approach the village, the men and boys are lined up in a perfect row a hundred yards long, waiting to greet Dostum. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. 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. It took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. Dostum, portrayed brilliantly by Navid Negahban, comes off as a kind of Obi Wan Kenobi, the ancient-wisdom-dispensing warrior. So we haven't even taken the southern part of the country and we're still working with the Northern Alliance. Right next to where I am staying. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. I ride in the warlords communications truck, a white Land Cruiser. I assumed he was fricking mean, hard. When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. 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. Now the tiny group of Americans need to show General Dostum what they can do. General Dostum knew the area and how to reach the goal faster by cutting through the mountains and finally communicated this when he felt more trusting of Captain Nelson. 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. ), 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. As Bill checks for wounds, he talks to the young man briefly in Arabic. Hemsworth plays Capt. In the movie, Nelson and his men must link up with General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his small band of fightersa partnership as much diplomatic as military, according to 12 Strong's director. Open your eyes! Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. 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. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. Blackened, twisted vehicles are perforated with thousands of jagged holes. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. Now three weeks later the war was supposed to be over. When the pilot radioed that he needed to return to base, the other pilot swung into action. The two Afghan leaders study a map with Captain Mark, just in case air strikes are needed. 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. 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. The soldiers stay well away from the al Qaeda prisoners as I interview them. However, the real Amy Nutsch, the wife of Mark Nutsch, was six months pregnant at the time of the September 11 attacks. 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. 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. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. 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. "We think they got it, they got the spirit of the Special Forces team in the post-9/11 moment in American history," said team leader Mark Nutsch, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie. -The Fayetteville Observer. Various close ups of American Specia. At 3:30 a.m., I go to bed. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. 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. In 2012, to honor their extraordinary heroism, a statue of a Horse Soldier was dedicated at the World Trade Center site." . There is an emotional landscape here I cannot see. The heavy shooting, the worried soldiers, the rapid radio chatterall signal that something ugly is going on over there. So I approach a war movie set in the days after 9/11 with a certain amount of skepticism. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. A local mullah sings a prayer of deliverance and thanks to Dostum. We are alive thanks to you. As Dostum stands on the porch, looking at the place of his birth, he chokes up. (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. The CIA had begun to work with Massouds people in October of 1999 hoping to pay him to kill Osama bin Laden. There are tanks. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. Mitch Nelson," a. When SFC Bill Bennett invited me over to jointhe teamSCUD hunting before the war he did not like that war. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. Although nighttime gunfire is normal in Afghanistan, there is an urgency to the sound of the deep explosions that come from the 19th-century fortress of Qala Jangi, just over a mile east from Khoda Barq, a Soviet-era apartment complex west of Mazar. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. "It's your city, general. 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. His father is old. They cleaned and stowed their gear and awaited the order. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. In real-life, Dostum became the Vice President of Afghanistan, as stated prior to the movie's end credits. Over the ensuing days, I take every opportunity to spend time in these makeshift barracks, particularly once I discover that this is the very unit of Green Berets that Id been hearing rumors aboutthis is Dostums covert support team. 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. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee . 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. 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. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. "They weirdly are a formidable force that will continue to fight, no matter what.". 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. I whip my horse, it takes three steps, and stops. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. And that he became the first Afghan commander to take over a major city when he entered Mazar-e Sharif on November 10. It was like that scene in Close Encounters where the aliens meet humans for the first time, one soldier says later. They spend every day training for war, teaching other armies about war, and waiting for the call to fight in the next war. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. Armored personnel carriers jerk to life in clouds of black diesel exhaust. 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. What happened next was the first of many distortions and fictional retelling of their story. Dostums meetings do not end until well after midnight. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. The Horse Soldiers monument in New York City is not based on any one person. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. 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. Every time the plane would circle, the Taliban would run behind their bunker. It was old-fashioned professionalism. 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. The deadline is noon. Dont I know you? one of them says. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. Some American soldiers are billeted upstairs in the guest houses; men in camo pants run up and down the stairs. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) Three years of drought have broken: A cold rain pours down in gray sheets. It works against tanks, but its plain stupid in this terrain. After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. 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.
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