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. It served as Pauls command post. I know because I counted the dead bodies. I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood. It was put on display across from Ground Zero in 2012. 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. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! 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. Some American soldiers are billeted upstairs in the guest houses; men in camo pants run up and down the stairs. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. It didnt seem to matter that there was no actual evidence. They moved and attacked mostly at night, riding small, wiry Afghan horses that are well suited to steep slopes and long desert walks. Lined up against a wall is the most pathetic display of humanity I have ever seen: the survivors of the bunker at Qala Jangi fortress. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. It was the finest sight I ever saw. "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. is the manner in which military members tend to downplay their service or push aside thanks, rarely focusing on themselves, but on their team or country as a whole. He lies staring at the ceiling. Yes. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. -The Fayetteville Observer, Yes. Astoundingly, after two days of bombardment, the prisoners still control the fort. Were not lifting our heads up!, When we turn around and notice whats going on, we see our Afghans have split., The team decided to call in a B-52 strike practically on their own positiona drastic move considering the planes were flying above 15,000 feet. Here Spann interviews Lindh but Lindh remains silent. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. Now we hope that America will not be cruel to the Afghan people.. He did have trouble getting off his horse, and like in the movie, the medic gave him something for the pain. Dostums father talks to his son as though he were a child, telling him that he and the teacher have been praying for his success. 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. Over the next few weeks I privately coin for him a nickname based on the medias fear and his in person good humor: I call him Heavy D, after the 1980s rapper. However, the real Amy Nutsch, the wife of Mark Nutsch, was six months pregnant at the time of the September 11 attacks. He brings the mullahs along, to show them the havoc incited by their foreign volunteers. An NGO insisted that thousands of corpses were dumped at a graveyard calledDasht-i-Leili outside of Shiberghan but refused to actual exhume them. Submit an Article "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. 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. 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. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. Here, the 12 Strong movie and the true story match up. Support Dostum. 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. Nuri is chatty, although he often looks to the silent Faizal before answering my questions. My attempts to convince the Afghans took place in a building in which men with dark beards sat in from of Tony Montana style palm tree sunset wall paper murals. Mitch Nelson, scanned the dark landscape around the landing zone. Nutsch commented: Were humbled that a movie has been made about our teams mission in that pivotal post 9/11 period. I was asked to sit on the same row as the team during his funeral. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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 don't need food for my horses," he said. How Accurate is 12 Strong? The True Story of the Real Horse Soldiers vs But on the ground in Afghanistan, theyre on their own. The steel gate to the guest house opens, and Dostum strolls out, hands in pockets, and is ushered into a black Audi Quattro with tinted windows. . Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. Now, on most mornings, Dostum emerges from his house, squinting into a crowd of turbaned men waiting for an audience. He had been assigned to a Manhattan reserve unit at the time of 9/11 and spent part of September 2001 cleaning up debris from the World Trade Center. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. What we are doing now has not occurred since Vietnam. It was somewhere between harassing and accurateenough to keep our heads down. This is where Alexander ruled, where Zoroaster was born, where Buddhists came on pilgrimages, a center of art, poetry, and study where lions were hunted and where Genghis Khan came to conquer. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. The bomb lands and hits and bam! They put the prisoners back on the truck. Interestingly, actor Chris Hemsworth's real-life wife, Elsa Pataky, portrays his character's wife in the movie. 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. Not exactly. Theres the erratic chatter of AK-47s and the deep dut dut dut dut of Taliban machine guns. Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. You felt the air leave. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. Mitch Miller died on July 31, 2010 of natural causes. Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. I waited for it, that inevitable politicization of our troops presence in Afghanistan, but was happily surprised when it never came. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. 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. He was quick to defend the weak and if negotiations failed he had no shortage of armed men that would stand beside him. Six months ago, he traveled to Kabul with some Pakistanis to join the Taliban. 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. They range in age from mid-20s to early 40s. I head downstairs and discover a group of soldiers bantering cheerfully, mostly in southern accents. 12 Strong: The Declassified True Story of the Horse Soldiers According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. The twisted rag doll bodies of dead Taliban fighters lie heads back, fingers clutched, legs sprawled as if they fell running. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. John, he says. At the same moment he was trying to flee Mazar from the Taliban assault. Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. "They didn't expect us to survive," Mark Nutsch said. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. "All of these guys have blood on their hands. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. The Battle of Bescham wwas fought on 23 October 2001 at the Taliban-occupied village of Bescham during the Invasion of Afghanistan. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. I looked at Lahl and said, Bombs away. We had 30 seconds till impact; meanwhile, the Afghan horde is screaming down this ridgeline. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. 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. We were ready to throw down the mattress and settle in for the night when one of the security guards came up with a radio and said that Dostum needed someone to go up to the front to call in aircraft. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. In real life, they learned of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center over the truck's radio on their way back to the base. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. 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. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. The 12 Strong true story confirms that he had been given an administrative staff position in the Fifth Group Headquarters. What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. Right next to where I am staying. This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. There is an emotional landscape here I cannot see. And waited. The Taliban had dug-in, trench-line bunkers shooting machine guns, heavy ma-chine guns, and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. Surprisingly Dostum agreed. This is the back jacket of The Hunt for Bin Laden ghostwritten by the late Jack Idema and published as non fiction by Random House editor Bob Loomis. 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. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. 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. real general dostum and mitch nelson - diagrammix.com Over the ensuing days, I take every opportunity to spend time in these makeshift barracks, particularly once I discover that this is the very unit of Green Berets that Id been hearing rumors aboutthis is Dostums covert support team. The Regulators job was to invent a new form of warfare: coordinating lightly armed horseback attacks with massive applications of American air powerall without hitting civilians or friendly forces. When he returns, the dark weariness has lifted. Mark Nutsch and his team had to gain Dostum's trust and convince him that 9/11 had changed things. 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. Chris Hemsworth plays Special Forces leader in '12 Strong' Later on he had a dark premonition. 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. Santos pointed out that with Massoud dead, and no Pashtun resistance, Dostum was Americas only hope. . 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. No one individual was the model for the statue. You know: You better not show any weakness. If one was to look for the roots of Dostums warlord reputation it began when he was the direct and most successful enemy of the CIA-backed insurgency of fundamentalist warlords based out of Pakistan. Mitch Nelson," a. Yes. ), 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. He says it was an area sympathetic to the Taliban and that his heart went out to them. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. His men rounded up vehicles that the Taliban had left behind, and Heavy D entered the city as a conquering hero, standing through the sunroof of a Toyota Land Cruiser. I am surprised, then, to see Dostum wrap his blue turban around his head and chin and stride into the village . Paul points to a misty, triangular peak that forms one side of the gap. Same thing: We identity it and boom! At least two Red Cross workers who descend into the bunker are shot and wounded. Our commanders said they didnt know what to expect, but at least they were honest enough to admit it, the Green Beret continues. Officials had been unaware that Dostum's army still used a horse cavalry. The videotape cuts to the next morning. The risk they were taking was indeed that great. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. 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. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. Abandoned Soviet-era tanks are scattered about the flat countryside like dinosaur skeletons. This scandal would tarnish General Dostums very realaccomplishment of being Americas most aggressive and stalwart allyagainst the Taliban and al Qaeda. No. 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. We must honor their truth not the fiction that creates more wars. A local mullah sings a prayer of deliverance and thanks to Dostum. Faizal has his prosthetic leg off. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. Questioning, sad children. Abdul Rashid Dostum - Wikipedia The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. "Excellent." 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. 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. Finally, the pilot says he has the target in sight. The conflict began with several hundred Taliban troops moving into positions on an adjacent hill. I assumed he was fricking mean, hard. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. As for why the names were changed, one article stated that the studio did not want to have to pay all of the real-life people for the rights to use their names. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. Or maybe that scene in Star Wars: These sand people started jabbering in a language we had never heard. The Americans shouldered their hundred-pound rucksacks while the Afghans hefted the rest of the equipment. Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) refuses. Its an irresistible story, made all the more so by a convincing rumor Ive been hearing since my arrival: that Dostum triumphed with a little help from his friendsspecifically, the Green Berets. "Sir," he said. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. Once they hit the ground, the Regulators would be writing their own game plan. 12 Strong - Navid Negahban "General Dostum" [On-Set Interview]Subscribe and click the notification bell HERE: http://goo.gl/SrrTlTSubscribe to Filmisnow Movi. They were forced to spend the night on the river bank after dense fog made it impossible to navigate their Zodiac inflatable boats. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. They linked up with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Uzbek fighters. I was full of emotions. 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. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. A crude videotape made by one of Dostums men shows a battle in the rolling hills of the Darra-e Suf, where the yellow grass contrasts with the deep blue sky. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. The teacher giggles, his white beard shaking with joy. No one knew just when or where the team would be sent. -The Fayetteville Observer, Originally, the Special Forces team, ODA 595, was supposed to be in Afghanistan on September 14, just three days after the attacks. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The new graves belong to those who were fighting terrorists. He is silhouetted against the slate-blue sky, the long tails of his silver turban whipping in the wind. In the afternoon, when I visit the 1985 fort called Qala i Jangi or Fort of the Soldiers, bullets sing over my head. The Regulators final destination turned out to be Uzbekistan, where they spent a week building a tent city and waiting for a mission. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. They brought with them the courage of a whole army.. Various close ups of American Specia. 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. Battle of Bescham | Historica Wiki | Fandom At first he is hostile, like a kitten baring its claws. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. He is so sincere; whenever I see him, I feel joy. He pauses for a moment, lost in reflection. You have to understand: Dostum had told them, If an American gets hurt . We will never end wars if we dont understand how to win them. -The Fayetteville Observer, In addition to ODA 595, three other teams were selected. Others have speculated that the filmmakers changed some of the names to diversify the Special Forces team for the movie, but that has not been confirmed. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. Based on history and dossiers full of Pakistani provided intelligence, theAgency wanted nothing to do with Dostum. Dostum in September 2014 First Vice President of Afghanistan In office 29 September 2014 - 19 February 2020 President Ashraf Ghani Preceded by Yunus Qanuni Succeeded by Amrullah Saleh Personal details Born (1954-03-25) 25 March 1954(age 68)[1] Khwaja Du Koh, Jowzjan, Kingdom of Afghanistan Political party Junbish-e Milli Nationality Afghanistan