We did all that we could. 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 movies portrayal. They reach out to shake his hand, to embrace him. 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. Mark Nutsch | Keppler Speakers Its a high, lonely place. 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. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. What happened to General Dostum in Afghanistan? I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. -The Fayetteville Observer. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . Military historians have called it one of the most successful unconventional warfare campaigns in U.S. history. 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. Their motto is To Free the Oppressedsomething they have done so far in this war with no civilian casualties, no blowback, and no regrets. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. Some were angry then, some had been through enough wars to see what was coming. In between conflict there was time to celebrate. When an American team finally recovered Spanns body, they discovered it had been booby-trapped with a live grenade (which they removed without incident). 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. "All of these guys have blood on their hands. 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. If the U.S. Special Forces team didnt work together with General Dostum and his militia, they would have had no chance against the tens of thousands of Taliban fighters. Trigger warnings include battlefield violence, repeated explosions and gun battles, and up-close scenes of civilian killings by the Taliban. They are men with wives, children, mortgages, bills. 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. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). The Taliban are running. Now, on most mornings, Dostum emerges from his house, squinting into a crowd of turbaned men waiting for an audience. We had unrestricted movement into the gap, which gave us the high ground.. The riders mount their horses, check their weapons, and begin the one-kilometer sprint to the Taliban front lines. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. People demanded that I do something, says Dostum. 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. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. I had first tried to meet the General in May of 1997. Whoever gets the high ground first wins the wars here. From their perch on the east side of the gorge, the Green Berets could shoot directly into the trenches of the Taliban. 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. As we drive through a drought-ravaged wasteland, he points out battlefields and the sites of ambushes and skirmishes. 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. A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. When I look at the terrible conditions and the predicament that Walker is in, I have to ask him if this is what he expected. 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 call in an airplane; you say, Can you see that place? Then the morphine begins to kick in. As we explored the accuracy of 12 Strong, we discovered that a group of both currently-serving and retired U.S. special operators were involved in the making of the movie, mainly to make sure that the filmmakers represented soldiers and combat accurately. 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. Washington, D.C.. 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. -ABC News. Almost immediately after the bombs exploded, the horses swept across the objectivethe enemy was so shell-shocked. "I need to be back on my team. Some cry out in pain, some are weeping, and others lie still, their faces frozen in deathly grimaces. 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. It was September 12, 2003. 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. 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. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. The tape now shows Dostum, leaning against a mud wall, watching through large binoculars. They were forced to spend the night on the river bank after dense fog made it impossible to navigate their Zodiac inflatable boats. As the Hespan drips into his veins, I fire up the video camera, and the man begins to tell his story. When noon comes and goes, I expect the order to fire. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. Men wept as the imam prayed and thanked Dostum for deliverance. 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. Shannon's character is wounded in the movie for dramatic effect. Fifty tents later, they told us to pack our shit again..
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