real general dostum and mitch nelson

Yes. -Legion of Brothers, No. Theres one time Ill never forget, he says. The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. Arent you the guy who goes to all those dangerous places?. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. who will play the wife of Mitch Nelson opposite her real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. 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. The crowds quickly grew; people threw money in the air for good luck. We thought he was wounded. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. 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. 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. Our mission was simple, another soldier says. (Though in my opinion, much more time should have been given to family homecoming scenes!). 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. I know because I counted the dead bodies. Not exactly. 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. A hundred yards away, villagers stand against a long compound. -The Fayetteville Observer, Only two of the characters in the film actually have the same names as their real-life Green Beret counterparts. 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 On 19 October . A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! Various close ups of American Specia. The two Afghan leaders study a map with Captain Mark, just in case air strikes are needed. The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. And we were going to oblige them.. "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. "My men are hungry. It was somewhere between harassing and accurateenough to keep our heads down. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. At 16, he started working as a laborer in the government-owned gas refinery in nearby Sheberghan, where he dabbled in union politics. The heavy shooting, the worried soldiers, the rapid radio chatterall signal that something ugly is going on over there. 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. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. Early in the afternoon on November 10, Dostum reached Mazar. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. Then theres Steve, a well-mannered southern medic; Pete, the burly chaw spitter; Mark, their blond, midwestern captain; and so on. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. -Den of Geek. 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. 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. This included using horses to navigate the mountainous region. 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. Three or four bombs hit right in the middle of the enemy position, says Will. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. 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 . Today the government of President Ghani has welcomed the fighters ofHekmatyar from exile in Pakistan and is looking to bring the Taliban into the government. We could see a bunch of Taliban come out of another bunker complex off to the south and disappear behind a hill. 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. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. The money was hardly enough for feeding my horses, Dostum says. They formed an alliance with Afghan rebels led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, played by Numan Acar. 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. Back in 2002 and 2003 the film and book industry were not interested in books or movies about Afghanistan. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. In exploring how accurate 12 Strong is, we learned that some members of the ODA 595 Special Forces team had been involved in a nighttime training exercise along the Cumberland River. 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) Its like a casting call for The Dirty Dozen. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. Although I spoke out on behalf of the team the media, didntpublish my eyewitness photos and testimony because it would go against a narrative thata Pashtun backed by a European-backed central government must rule Kabul, not a coalition of regional leaders.We did not want the Taliban voting themselves back into power, yet we restrained the grass roots power of the ethnic minorities. show Dostum the chapter in Rashids book that includes the account of the gruesome execution of the thief. As we drive through a drought-ravaged wasteland, he points out battlefields and the sites of ambushes and skirmishes. 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 . But 9/11 changed all that. The morning after Heavy Ds return from Kunduz, he greets me with a deep, booming Howareyou? Today, he tells me, he is eager for me to meet his trophy mullahs. He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. The lead horsemen disappeared behind the rocks, and the Regulators all held their breath, praying the bombs would reach the bunkers before the cavalry did. What your name? 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. Rifles, night-vision gear, and boots are strewn everywhere. Moments later Mike would be murdered by prisoners. I whip my horse, it takes three steps, and stops. I saw this look in Fakirs eyes, says Mark, like, Why didnt you help?, Dostum, triumphant on a return to the simple village of his brith. 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. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) More than 400 prisoners are said to have died; I count only about 50 bodies in the courtyard. 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. It was pretty painful, Paul says. To my surprise, these men felt at home., And more than that: The Afghan warlord and his tiny band of American soldiers had clearly formed a bond that only men who have been through combat can understand. In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. An odd case of alack of evidence being brought forward as the evidence. 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. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. The 12 Strong movie has Chris Hemsworth's character (Mark Nutsch in real life) being given the candy-bar-sized piece of metal by Colonel Mulholland. Under intense pressure, the Regulators had called in a perfect surgical strikea bomb drop in a crowded urban area without a single civilian casualty. 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. In Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers, it was Colonel Max Bowers, portrayed by Rob Riggle, who brought a piece of steel with him from the World Trade Center to Afghanistan. Commanders, clergymen, womenthey would all tell me very bitter stories. However, he had been deployed in the Middle East and around the globe. 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. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. Over chai (tea), he announces good news. 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. The Taliban are running. "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. That I am kind and gentle? The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. Same thing: We identity it and boom! 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 the CIA and spec ops have been let loose., Dostums men were a loose alliance that grew with every victory against the Taliban. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Is Captain Mitch Nelson still alive? The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. ODA 595 followed by ODA 555 were the first two teams to have boots on the ground in Afghanistan following 9/11. The Regulators final destination turned out to be Uzbekistan, where they spent a week building a tent city and waiting for a mission. 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. Officials had been unaware that Dostum's army still used a horse cavalry. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. They had tanks, air force, and artillery. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. The enemy was 700 meters out and moving quickly. 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. When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. Aside from the challenges of cultural differences and a sense of distrust on both sides, the Americans, with their state of the art technology and equipment, had to learn to navigate the treacherous mountains and desert landscape the same way the locals did: on horseback. (Within a week, he will be named deputy minister of defense for the new interim government of Afghanistan.) "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. Afghans in a blue truck are scavenging for parts. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. 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. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. 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. Some American soldiers are billeted upstairs in the guest houses; men in camo pants run up and down the stairs. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. He had been assigned to a Manhattan reserve unit at the time of 9/11 and spent part of September 2001 cleaning up debris from the World Trade Center. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. John Walker Lindh was among those who surrendered in the battle for Mazar-i-Sharif and his story is included in the Horse Soldiers book but not in the movie. Hemsworth plays Capt. When war first came to Afghanistan, two decades ago, he built his first stronghold here to guard the village. The soldiers stay well away from the al Qaeda prisoners as I interview them. Dostum arrives that night, ducking to avoid banging his head as he strides through the guest-house door. If he goes off the deep end and starts whacking people, advise higher up and maybe pull out. This was the most incredibly open mission we have ever done., Before heading in-country, the soldiers had been briefed only vaguely about Dostum. It wasnt done perfectly, but it will never be forgotten., Over 3200 prisoners were kept in Sheberghan Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The soldiers on the U.S. Special Forces teams were used to state-of-the-art warfare. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee . Theyve just finished installing a satellite TV. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. Over the next few weeks I privately coin for him a nickname based on the medias fear and his in person good humor: I call him Heavy D, after the 1980s rapper. People still walk by the 16-foot bronze statue of a Green Beret on horseback overlooking Ground Zero and are unaware of its significance (the Horse Soldiers monument is pictured near the bottom of this page). "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. We will never end wars if we dont understand how to win them. DP hats, so I dig them out of my bag and pass them around. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. He takes me to the hilltop above the village. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. The trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. If one was to look for the roots of Dostums warlord reputation it began when he was the direct and most successful enemy of the CIA-backed insurgency of fundamentalist warlords based out of Pakistan. 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. My friends were struggling against the Taliban, and I was sitting there., Dostum says that to help him get back into the fray, the former president of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, sliced offabout $40,000 from the CIA funds. Infiltrate the 12 Strong true story further by watching the documentary and videos below. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. I soon learn that yesterday some 400 foreign Taliban prisoners overpowered their guards, broke into arsenals, and took over part of the fortress. Accordingly, on 25 May 1997, Malik arrested Khan, handed him over and let the Taliban enter Mazar-e-Sharif, giving them control over most of northern Afghanistan. "There was nothing built up," Mark Nutsch said. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). You see the village; you see the bunkers, says a second Steve, one of the two Air Force men attached to the team to help coordinate air strikes. But the story gradually emerges. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. So, I worked for him, directly," says Riggle. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. 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. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. 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 movie's portrayal. 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. Since I was a guest of General Dostum it was a little difficult for the men to avoid me. It was right at dark. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Horse Soldiers Documentary & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. 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. 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. Blackened, twisted vehicles are perforated with thousands of jagged holes. When SFC Bill Bennett invited me over to jointhe teamSCUD hunting before the war he did not like that war. A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. Some huddle together to watch the gray pillars of smoke from the bombing runs. As they began unloading their gear, they were met by Afghans in turbans, their faces wrapped. A story of how 12 Americansand a Afghan warlord won the war on terror, if only for a brief time still remains to be told. Down below, small Afghan horses are nipping the dry grass on the safe side of the hill, their riders chatting while awaiting the order to charge. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. The men know their story and I wrote it down. -NPR, No. Our commanders said they didnt know what to expect, but at least they were honest enough to admit it, the Green Beret continues. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. 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. Gradually shapes emerged out of the shadows - a small group of Afghan Northern Alliance soldiers together with four American advisers who had been in country for about two weeks. -ABC News. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. Soldiers run up to the bite in the wall, shoot into the fort, and then scurry back down. . There are tanks. They are currently enjoying some well earned recognition now that the film 12 Strong has been released but again, the filmis not anywhere close to the truth. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. 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. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. I asked for a few Americans, he says finally. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. Even the CIA was reticent to land paramilitaries and officers to set up the conditions for an Special Forces ODA to be inserted. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" Dostums men load RPGs and check their ammo drums. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Newsweek, The New York Times and other outlets insisted that eyewitness had seen American soldiers laughing and shooting into containers. 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. There are twelve Green Berets here and two Air Force forward air controllers. 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). Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. 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. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. If there is no enemy, then bureaucracy is the enemy, he says. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. 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. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. The Horse Soldiers monument in New York City is not based on any one person.

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