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. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. The bomb lands and hits and bam! Now three weeks later the war was supposed to be over. There were roughly 200 paid Afghan soldiers under General Dostum's command and an undetermined number of part-time militia. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Then theres Steve, a well-mannered southern medic; Pete, the burly chaw spitter; Mark, their blond, midwestern captain; and so on. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. In contrast to the Americans high-tech warfare, some of Dostums tactics would have seemed familiar to the British troops who tried and failed to pacify this region in the 19th century. Our Afghans are running out of ammo. He never sacrificed his men. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. 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. 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. On 19 October . One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. 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 The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. One Leadership Skill That Turned 12 'Horse Soldiers' Into An Elite When war first came to Afghanistan, two decades ago, he built his first stronghold here to guard the village. We were surprised at how good they were, says Captain Mark. After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. The now declassified mission, code-name Task Force Dagger, included joining forces with the loosely organized Northern Alliance to help take back certain provinces, as well as act as the tip of the spear in the initial fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. '12 Strong' battles for hearts and minds - Boston Herald Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Copyright 2023 HistoryvsHollywood.com, CTF Media, Horse Soldiers Documentary & Related Videos, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. Open your eyes! "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. -Den of Geek. They had tanks, air force, and artillery. Even the CIA was reticent to land paramilitaries and officers to set up the conditions for an Special Forces ODA to be inserted. We kept moving north on horseback, but at that point, no one could tell where the front line was anymore. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. "They weirdly are a formidable force that will continue to fight, no matter what.". Our mission was simple, another soldier says. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. What happened next was the first of many distortions and fictional retelling of their story. The twisted rag doll bodies of dead Taliban fighters lie heads back, fingers clutched, legs sprawled as if they fell running. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. -The Fayetteville Observer. The deadline is noon. 21st Century Horse Soldiers - Special Operations Forces and Operation He wont tell me who to contact, or provide any information that would get him out of the crudely equipped hospital. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. "I need to be back on my team. Theres the erratic chatter of AK-47s and the deep dut dut dut dut of Taliban machine guns. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. The two Afghan leaders study a map with Captain Mark, just in case air strikes are needed. Power is not given to anyone forever. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! The heavy shooting, the worried soldiers, the rapid radio chatterall signal that something ugly is going on over there. An old man yells, God bless you. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. 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. They were setting up fixed positionsbunkers with Y-shaped fighting trencheson the northern side of the gap. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. On another truck are the seriously wounded. 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. Now, Cpt. I target the third bunker. The trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. In the courtyard, a soft-eyed cow tries to eat spilled oats just beyond its reach. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. 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. We roll past weathered villages unchanged in two millennia. I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. Within hours, they are gone. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. The book was quietly taken out of print. 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. 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. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. The Taliban are running. Then the concussion: ka-RUMPH! True Story of 12 Strong: The Horse Soldiers - Average Joes Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. But I never travel without a few Mr. When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. 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. Not long before Im to leave, Dostum asks for help with a letter of condolence to the widow of Mike Spann. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. 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. It is also rumored that there are many dead and at least two live prisoners holed up in the subterranean bomb shelter. '12 Strong' turns heroic tale into generic war movie Only Paul and Andy are able to appreciate what happened here. You can bomb it until there is no resistance, or you bomb and, as soon as the bomb goes off, you charge. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. As the Hespan drips into his veins, I fire up the video camera, and the man begins to tell his story. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. On September 11, 2001, Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha 595, moves into a new home with his wife and daughter after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. None of the 12 soldiers died during the 2001 Afghanistan mission. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. He waves the accomplishment aside with a shy smile even as he promises to introduce me to his new trophiesthe mullahs. I feel he is my brother. Then the war began. 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. 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. 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. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. There are tanks. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. It took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. The movie isn't revealing anything new. It was pretty painful, Paul says. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. He brings the mullahs along, to show them the havoc incited by their foreign volunteers. What we didnt realize was that the Taliban who we saw coming out of the bunker had gone into the low ground and were sprinting up the hills at us in a flanking maneuver. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee . Men who are the Armys elite, who are college educated and fluent in several languages, yet who are paid little more than a manager at McDonalds. Their captors brought them here en route to the Sheberghan prison. 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. Privacy Policy At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. 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. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. 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. 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. In the book, Bowers had planned to give the piece of metal to Afghan General Dostum and warlord Atta Muhammad Noor, if needed, to bind them in their common fight against the Taliban. 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.