real general dostum and mitch nelsonabigail johnson nantucket home

Compliance. 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. The shelling, raping, pillaging, looting, and house-to-house fighting that then befell Kabul stained the name of every mujahidin commander, including Dostums, and fueled his reputation for brutality. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. In the bewildering matrix of Afghan politics, Dostum has frequentlyand nimblyswitched allegiances. We thought he was wounded. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. 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. Meanwhile, Im hunkered down, waiting for Dostum. Its like a casting call for The Dirty Dozen. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. 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. ), 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. Chris Hemsworth's character's real-life counterpart, Mark Nutsch, had worked on a cattle ranch when he was younger and was one of the few members of the 12-man team who had experience riding horses. (Though in my opinion, much more time should have been given to family homecoming scenes!). He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. I feel he is my brother. Then came September 11. The Uzbeks and Hazara took to the mountains to escape the mechanized columns of the Taliban, Those among Dostums men who had remained in Afghanistan now became guerrilla fighters, moving on horseback holed up in the mountains under the command of his former number two La. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. The tape now shows Dostum, leaning against a mud wall, watching through large binoculars. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. Somehow I make it across the open area. 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 doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. 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. Yes. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. 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. Ka-RUMPH! No more Taliban. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. 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. Where you from? The man finally answers. July 22, 2018. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. You call in an airplane; you say, Can you see that place? We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. 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. This is where the Taliban made their last stand. 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. 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. It was September 12, 2003. The soldiers on the U.S. Special Forces teams were used to state-of-the-art warfare. 12 Strong: Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. At first, their mission was one of personnel recovery, tasked with rescuing any pilots shot down during the air war in Afghanistan. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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 rest mounted up and rode north. 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. "They weirdly are a formidable force that will continue to fight, no matter what.". If there is no enemy, then bureaucracy is the enemy, he says. Its a high, lonely place. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. "The threat of capture, torture was very real." We only had the time it takes 250 horses to travel 1,500 meters, so I told the pilot to step on it, Will says. A man who is said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. Its a gritty reminder of who our common enemy wasone that not only strove to kill Americans, but also attempted to force its archaic way of life on whole countries. 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. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. We are alive thanks to you. As Dostum stands on the porch, looking at the place of his birth, he chokes up. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. 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. I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. 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. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. As he leans into the Afghan wind, the light falls, and a moment in history fades. 12 STRONG Rebeca Aguilar-Diaz PROFESSOR - Course Hero He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. 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. 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. Each night, Dostum would sit down with the Americans and lay out the battle plan for the next day. 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. 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. 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. "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. In Hollywood I was asked to join meetings during which actors and producers pitched the story, read half a dozen books in which the idea of John Wayne like cavalry charges and Dostums ogre like cruelty were fictionalized into cartoons. (19 Dec 2001) 1. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. We fought with nothing but hope.. 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. If we had been there, Mikes death would not have happened., When they got word of the incident, the unit desperately wanted to get back to the prison. Back in 2002 and 2003 the film and book industry were not interested in books or movies about Afghanistan. About 200 men have taken up positions around the village, eyeing ragged locals, who stare back from a careful distance. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. The Real Story of General Dostum and 12 Strong Green Berets You see this grid? The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. He was quick to defend the weak and if negotiations failed he had no shortage of armed men that would stand beside him. Mark Nutsch | Keppler Speakers Perhaps theyll convince any surviving prisoners to surrender. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. Nutsch commented: Were humbled that a movie has been made about our teams mission in that pivotal post 9/11 period.

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