One Leadership Skill That Turned 12 'Horse Soldiers' Into An Elite Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. 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. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. Finally, the pilot says he has the target in sight. This article on ODA 595, General Dostum, John Walker Lindh and the battle at Qali-i-Jangi was originally published in the March 2002 edition of National Geographic Adventure, THE LEGEND OF HEAVYAND THE BOYS By Robert Young Pelton. 12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. He never sacrificed his men. The doctor yells in halting English, What your name? He jabs at the half-conscious mans face. As we approach the village, the men and boys are lined up in a perfect row a hundred yards long, waiting to greet Dostum. I grab my cameras and ask Bill, a pensive Green Beret medic, to come with me. And we were going to oblige them.. In the back, a doctor leans over a man with a smoke-blackened face, wild black hair, and an unkempt beard. 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. By the time they come up and look, you are on them. The latter approach was well suited to Dostums style of attack. If he wants to take over the whole country, do it. Up on the parapets, Dostums troops stream toward a gap in the ramparts created yesterday by an errant American 2000 lb bomb. In real-life, Dostum became the Vice President of Afghanistan, as stated prior to the movie's end credits. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. 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. Under intense pressure, the Regulators had called in a perfect surgical strikea bomb drop in a crowded urban area without a single civilian casualty. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. Drop a bomb on that grid. Pretty straightforward stuff.. Only two characters in 12 Strong . to talk. The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. We roll past weathered villages unchanged in two millennia. '12 Strong' battles for hearts and minds - Boston Herald Dostums first stop was the blue mosque at the tomb of Hazrat Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet. They just cant figure it out. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. I had first tried to meet the General in May of 1997. We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. 12 Strong Best Quotes - 'We're on our own.' - MovieQuotesandMore Dostums men kick the corpses into the trenches and cover them with the tan dirt, not bothering to count the dead. Every time the plane would circle, the Taliban would run behind their bunker. He was quick to defend the weak and if negotiations failed he had no shortage of armed men that would stand beside him. It's true that Dostum said that he would rather see 500 of his own men killed than see a scratch on an American soldier. 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. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. That I am kind and gentle? "Excellent." 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. In the courtyard, a soft-eyed cow tries to eat spilled oats just beyond its reach. It wasnt done perfectly, but it will never be forgotten., Over 3200 prisoners were kept in Sheberghan Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). This time there is no convoy; just a son paying his respects to his father. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. 12 STRONG Rebeca Aguilar-Diaz PROFESSOR - Course Hero That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. ), 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. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. Mazar-i-Sharif was the stronghold for the Taliban's northern force and once liberated, the northern provinces quickly fell. Same thing: We identity it and boom! 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. 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. 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. Then the war began. Also, there was hardly any assurance that the team would be safe with the Afghan fighters they were working alongside. I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. But the story gradually emerges. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. 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. 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. 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,. Yes. John, he says. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. Images of them doing this can be seen below and in Alex Quade's short documentary Horse Soldiers of 9/11. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. Each night, Dostum would sit down with the Americans and lay out the battle plan for the next day. I could see the horses blasting out the other side. 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. 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. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. Right next to where I am staying. The next morning, about 60 Afghan cavalry came thundering into the compound. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. 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. 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 . 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. Bill and the team were wearing armor decorated with my logo when he died. Afghans in a blue truck are scavenging for parts. Wrapped in blankets, members of the mullahs entourage fix me with soulless stares. 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. ODA 555 was inserted next in the east in the Panjshir Valley, with the mission of working with ethnic Tajik fighters. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. The Regulators flew in from Uzbekistan at night on a blacked-out Chinook helicopter. I soon learn that yesterday some 400 foreign Taliban prisoners overpowered their guards, broke into arsenals, and took over part of the fortress. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. Newsletter This included using horses to navigate the mountainous region. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. An event and a man I will never forget. Dostums men had finally flooded them out by sluicing frigid water into the subterranean room. The only sign that something is about to happen is a white contrail high in the sky. 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 Dostums men have been throwing down grenades and pouring in gasoline and lighting it, but the foreign Taliban refuse to come up. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. Two of the Green Berets Ive been chatting withAndy and Paul, the pair with the longest tenure in the companyhave decided that I need to see this place for myself, or maybe simply that they need to go see it again one last time. 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. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. Dostums men load RPGs and check their ammo drums. Its more like, I am coming to get youwhether I hit you is another story. Its Old World combat at its finest. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri refuse: They claim they dont know these people. What '12 Strong' Tells Us about Afghanistan - The National Interest 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. The rounds are zinging over my head. The info I had was that he was MIA, Mark says. Abdul Rashid Dostum - Wikipedia 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. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. Then Bob Pennington (played by Michael Shannon in the movie) announced they had another gift and handed Dostum a bottle of Russian vodka. Within hours, they are gone. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. 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. They formed an alliance with Afghan rebels led by Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, played by Numan Acar. In 2012, to honor their extraordinary heroism, a statue of a Horse Soldier was dedicated at the World Trade Center site." . 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 men were thrilled; they were so happy. Biography Mitch Nelson was born in Alma, Kansas, and he married a Hispanic woman and had a daughter. 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. The teacher giggles, his white beard shaking with joy. William Fichtner portrays Mulholland in the movie and Homeland's Navid Negahban plays General Dostum. He talked for half an hour. Theyve just finished installing a satellite TV. 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. 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. The Taliban are running. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. 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. Now the tiny group of Americans need to show General Dostum what they can do. 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. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. Rifles, night-vision gear, and boots are strewn everywhere. We get out of the jeep and stand in the rain and slick mud. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." He freely admits that in two decades of war, abuses have been committed by the troops of every commander. Newsweek, The New York Times and other outlets insisted that eyewitness had seen American soldiers laughing and shooting into containers. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. 21st Century Horse Soldiers - Special Operations Forces and Operation The team set up on the roof of a building about 400 meters from the madrasah and called in a strike. On the next pass, three more bombs went through the hole in the roof made by the first bomb, killing most of the holdouts inside. "There was nothing built up," Mark Nutsch said. The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. 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.). real general dostum and mitch nelson - diagrammix.com The crumpled bodies of prisoners, frozen in agony, are scattered everywhere. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. A cavalry charge is an amazing thing, Will says. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. It never happened in real life, though Pennington says that he still suffers from back pain from riding the horse. In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the elite U.S. Special Forces unit, Operational Detachment-Alpha 595 (ODA 595 for short), was one of three teams of Special Forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan. If there is no enemy, then bureaucracy is the enemy, he says. -Den of Geek. That, says Dostum, was when the war against terror began., Living in caves and raiding Taliban positions, Dostums men slowly began to harass the well-entrenched Taliban along the Darra-e Suf. My opinion is an unequivocal yes. Dostum and his commanders wanted to negotiate, but the foreign Taliban shot and killed their peace envoys, which left Al-liance leaders with little choice. The crowds quickly grew; people threw money in the air for good luck. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. '12 Strong' turns heroic tale into generic war movie Since he cant speak Urdu, he was assigned to the Arab-speaking branch of Ansar (the helpers), a faction that Walker claims is sponsored by Osama bin Ladenwhom Walker says he saw many times in the training camps and on the front lines. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. Our Afghans are running out of ammo. He confesses that he had worried at first how the Americans would handle Afghan warfare: It was cold; the food was bad. Not exactly. All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. It was pretty painful, Paul says. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. In the movie, another team member arrives to pick them up and tells them about the attacks. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. Three years of drought have broken: A cold rain pours down in gray sheets. 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 trapped Taliban volunteers, it seems, remain hungry for martyrdom. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. DP hats, so I dig them out of my bag and pass them around. War drama directed by Nicolai Fuglsig which is inspired by true events and is set days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. Commanders, clergymen, womenthey would all tell me very bitter stories. They spend every day training for war, teaching other armies about war, and waiting for the call to fight in the next war. Ese Argumentuese Libri Dhe Interneti, Is Lori Goldstein Married, Articles R
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