real general dostum and mitch nelson

When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. Dostum points to the fresh dirt of new graves in the cemetery. I feel he is my brother. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. Outmanned, the Green Berets decided to move out on horseback. Now, on most mornings, Dostum emerges from his house, squinting into a crowd of turbaned men waiting for an audience. Like in the film (available to watch here), at first they tried giving him horse feed but General Dostum wasn't impressed. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. Dostum and Mitch Nelson remain close friends to this day. That I am kind and gentle? We did all that we could. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. America was fully committed to defeating the Taliban and ousting them from power. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. "The threat of capture, torture was very real." 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. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. -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. I talk to an Iraqi, as well as to Pakistanis and Saudisall of whom speak English. 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. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. Same thing: We identity it and boom! "For all of our teams, the risk was extraordinary," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. Then the war began. On 19 October . When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. 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. I was sick of this guy running back and forth getting ammo. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. Also, there was hardly any assurance that the team would be safe with the Afghan fighters they were working alongside. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The conflict began with several hundred Taliban troops moving into positions on an adjacent hill. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. I ride in the warlords communications truck, a white Land Cruiser. He sits and makes small talk, then excuses himself to take a shower. You see this grid? -Horse Soldiers book, The movie finds the soldiers being told that there is a good chance they won't survive the mission. I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. After the American bombing campaign decimated their forces, Walker and members of his unit fled on foot nearly a hundred miles west to Kunduzall for nothing, as it turned out. Compliance. They formed an alliance with Afghan rebels led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, played by Numan Acar. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. A man who is said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. That group was disbanded and then re-formed in the early 1950s as Special Forces, which John F. Kennedy later nicknamed the Green Berets. you die. We were focused on calling in an air strike to take out this truck that had rumbled into view, and now RPG rounds are flying over our heads. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. An event and a man I will never forget. 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. The Battle of Bescham wwas fought on 23 October 2001 at the Taliban-occupied village of Bescham during the Invasion of Afghanistan. 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. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. 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. Rob Riggle, who portrays Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie (the commander of the 3rd Battalion 5th Special Forces Group) served in Afghanistan as a Marine in 2001. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. Both of the named Green Berets are commanding officers, John Mulholland and Max Bowers. He was authorized to transform his Jowyzjani militia into the 53rd Infantry Division in 1988 and ultimately under the Soviet backed regime of Najibullah, he became commander of the 7th Army Corps in charge of all of Northern Afghanistan. A small group of CIA that included Mike Spann, flew in to the Darra-e Suf the day before ODA 595 would land. 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. When noon comes and goes, I expect the order to fire. Like in the movie, Doug Stanton's book Horse Soldiers describes Nutsch going to Colonel Bowers after the attacks to ask to be placed with his team again. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. Ironically, he actually served under the man he is portraying. 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. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. 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. It wasnt done perfectly, but it will never be forgotten., Over 3200 prisoners were kept in Sheberghan Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. And I believe it will mean a lot to the Afghan people because it shows their service in that conflict.. 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. 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. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. Dostum must now change his focus from fighting to rebuilding his country. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri refuse: They claim they dont know these people. Arent you the guy who goes to all those dangerous places?. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. You could see machine gun fire from both positions. 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. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. 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). 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. 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 . I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. He refused to talk to his parents and he was takenback to our guesthouse for his protection. Yes. 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. I had first tried to meet the General in May of 1997. Capt. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. 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. Some were angry then, some had been through enough wars to see what was coming. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. 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. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. 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. It served as Pauls command post. 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 men know their story and I wrote it down. "Excellent." When the regime fell in 1992, three years after the Soviets departed, Dostum fought alongside the mujahidin and helped the Northern Alliances legendary Ahmad Shah Massoud battle the fundamentalist Pashtun forces of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and gain control of the capital. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. 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. What your name? The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Captain Mark Nutsch achieved this unexpected success in November 2001 by breaking out of a rebel pocket of the Hindu Kush Mountains and seizing Mazar i Sharif,. Mullah Faizel, commander of the Taliban Army in the North. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. Following several weather delays, ODA 595 and ODA 555 flew into Afghanistan on MH-47 helicopters on October 19, 2001, 39 days after Al-Qaeda's attack on the World Trade Center. The risk they were taking was indeed that great. Dostum stays in contact with the Americans by radio, working to help focus the bombing: a man with a seventh-grade education directing the fire of the worlds most powerful military. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. 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. But 9/11 changed all that. The team was ordered to exile to meet Donald Rumsfeld and be interviewed by Robin Moore. But when he smiles, he looks like a naughty 12-year-old. The prisoners were not properly searched by members of the Northern Alliance before they were crammed onto trucks and the troops had not realized the American Lindh was among them. 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. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. 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. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. They put the prisoners back on the truck. They placed it in a body bag and lowered it into the ground. I'm playing Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. Paul here is busy shooting at guys. I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. 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. "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. Paul picks up the story, raindrops dotting his gold-rimmed, government-issue glasses. I am surprised, then, to see Dostum wrap his blue turban around his head and chin and stride into the village . 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. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. They range in age from mid-20s to early 40s. who will play the wife of Mitch Nelson opposite her real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth. Now, Cpt. The real-life Special Forces officer he represents is Mark Nutsch, who asked that his name be fictionalized in the movie. 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. So, I worked for him, directly," says Riggle. Officials had been unaware that Dostum's army still used a horse cavalry. None of the 12 soldiers died during the 2001 Afghanistan mission. A wife buried shoulders deep in her oven, scrubbing it out as if her life depends on it, as if it will make any sort of difference in whats coming (Angry cleaning, I call it.). Now the tiny group of Americans need to show General Dostum what they can do. He takes me to the hilltop above the village. The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. 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. 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. Some hide their faces, others convulse and shiver. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. Yes. A day laterThursday, five days since the uprising broke outthey are still firing sporadically at soldiers removing bodies from the courtyard of the fortress. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. The crowds quickly grew; people threw money in the air for good luck. It took a few hours for bombers to arrive from their carriers. The men Im staying with have dubbed their unit the Regulators, after the 19th-century cowboys who were hired by cattle barons to guard their herds from rustlers. 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. -The Fayetteville Observer, Only two of the characters in the film actually have the same names as their real-life Green Beret counterparts. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. . In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. 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. However, the mission quickly changed and became about convincing ethnic leaders (some were more similar to warlords) to join forces with them to fight their common enemy: the Taliban and its Al Qaeda allies. My opinion is an unequivocal yes. 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. The U.S. refused to work with Dostum until former UN envoy Charlie Santos pointed out to the CIA that the only functioning fighting group besidesthe Panjshiris ofMassoud wereDostums Uzbeks. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) The madrasah was surrounded for about a mile on each side by identical buildings, which made it difficult for the pilots to pick out the school. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. -KTLA 5 Riggle, now an actor known for his comedic performances, gave 23 years of total service to the military. (Within a week, he will be named deputy minister of defense for the new interim government of Afghanistan.) 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. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. show Dostum the chapter in Rashids book that includes the account of the gruesome execution of the thief. After our time in country, I became friends with the men and defended them when they were accused of war crimes by the media. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. 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. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. When he returns, the dark weariness has lifted. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. The rest of the time they travel. First arrival on the Observation Post. 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 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. Before the arrival of the Americans, Dostum fought mostly at night. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. Blackened, twisted vehicles are perforated with thousands of jagged holes. It also means a great deal to our families, who sacrifice so much, that what we accomplished is finally being brought more into public light. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. We fought with nothing but hope.. 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. Ka-RUMPH! General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. It was September 12, 2003. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. Only two characters in 12 Strong . However, the rugged Afghan terrain forced them to adopt the rudimentary practices of the Afghan horse soldiers. It was old-fashioned professionalism. As I wait for Dostum to return, though, the constant chatter of machine guns and the badoom badoom of cannons from an American gunship bombarding the fortDostums military headquarterssuggest that I might be a bit premature in offering any congratulations on winning the war. Each night, Dostum would sit down with the Americans and lay out the battle plan for the next day. 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. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. And that ended the resistance. As the three of us climb back into our vehicle, I glance at the battlefield. to talk. It feels more than a bit odd to be recognized for my books and TV showas someone who specializes in traveling to the worlds hot spotswhile poking around a war in Afghanistan. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. No one knew just when or where the team would be sent. A cavalry charge is an amazing thing, Will says. Dostum dismounted and shook everyones hand, then sat on a mound covered with carpets. Late in the afternoon, a convoy of mud-spattered off-road vehicles pulls up, and a dozen dusty Americans in tan chocolate chip camo climb out. Mitch Nelson," a. They linked up with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Uzbek fighters. A typical meal at Dostums guesthouse. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. From there, American and Afghan forces would liberate Kabul in the east, Herat in the west, Kandahar in the south, and Jalalabad, resulting in the Afghan forces taking control of the country from the Taliban. However, with regard to making sure the movie didn't veer too far from the true story, only two members of the original ODA-595 detachment visited the set for a total of 2.5 days. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. However, he had been deployed in the Middle East and around the globe. Soldiers run up to the bite in the wall, shoot into the fort, and then scurry back down. Nutsch commented: Were humbled that a movie has been made about our teams mission in that pivotal post 9/11 period. Every time the plane would circle, the Taliban would run behind their bunker.

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