real general dostum and mitch nelson

The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. That afternoon, Dostum and I set off for the fort, where the uprising has been all but quelled. The men know their story and I wrote it down. The B-Team had already set up shop at theTurkish School in Mazar and was getting ready for the push to Tora Bora. When he returns, the dark weariness has lifted. After our time in country, I became friends with the men and defended them when they were accused of war crimes by the media. We fought with nothing but hope.. There was talk that the team might be split uprumors of differences with a commanding officer who didnt appreciate the traditional independence of the Green Berets. Now the CIA and spec ops have been let loose., Dostums men were a loose alliance that grew with every victory against the Taliban. I will let what you see be the truth.. There are tanks. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. -KTLA 5 Riggle, now an actor known for his comedic performances, gave 23 years of total service to the military. 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. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. Others begin the work of the day without even paying attention to the nearby fighting. In 1996, when the Taliban rolled into Kabul, Dostum was forced to retreat to his stronghold in Mazar as the mullahs instituted their version of a pure Islamic state. The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. 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. ODA 595 Prepares to retrieve the body of Mike Spann from Qala-i-Jangi Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. It was pretty painful, Paul says. They are direct military descendants of the Devils Brigade, a joint Canadian-American unit that fought in Italy during the Second World War. In the 1980s, as a young army officer in the Soviet-backed government, he fought against the mujahidin. 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. It is also rumored that there are many dead and at least two live prisoners holed up in the subterranean bomb shelter. How do you love your family and leave them to go to war? The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. Is 12 Strong a Real Story? Ending Explained, and More The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. You see the village; you see the bunkers, says a second Steve, one of the two Air Force men attached to the team to help coordinate air strikes. All I see is grass growing beside abandoned trenches. But when he smiles, he looks like a naughty 12-year-old. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . At eight that night, we pulled in to Shulgareh, which is the biggest town in the valley. Battle of Bescham | Historica Wiki | Fandom 12 Strong: Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. The team was ordered to exile to meet Donald Rumsfeld and be interviewed by Robin Moore. It was old-fashioned professionalism. However, when the 2009 Horse Soldiers book was being written, Mark Nutsch had requested that his name be changed to protect his identity, as was the case with most of the other Horse Soldiers. 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. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. A few yards before the turnoff to Khvajeh Do Kuh, he gestures to a place where 180 of his men died fighting the Taliban. At the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. When SFC Bill Bennett invited me over to jointhe teamSCUD hunting before the war he did not like that war. Dostum proves to be significantly more expansive in conversation than his scant press clippings would suggest, and hes happy to fill me in on his background. 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. In seconds, 250 men on horseback were thundering toward the Taliban position a mere 1,500 meters away. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. It feels even more odd when I discover that these are Green Beretssoldiers who truly specialize in the worlds hot spots. Dostum must now change his focus from fighting to rebuilding his country. The entrance to the bunker was pierced by cannon shots and is blackened from explosions. He would take a village by getting the mounted guys up close. Around eight oclock on Saturday night, while Im talking with the Green Berets, one of Dostums men comes into the house and asks us to follow him outside. Some are in pieces; others have been flattened by tank treads. Yes. I feel he is my brother. 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. The teacher giggles, his white beard shaking with joy. 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. We were surprised at how good they were, says Captain Mark. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. Three or four bombs hit right in the middle of the enemy position, says Will. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. The Afghans shoot from horseback, but there is no aiming in this country. This part of Afghanistan is ancient, arid, windblownand is the real cradle of its history and wealth. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. "I need to be back on my team. 12 Strong - Wikipedia 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. Paul picks up the story, raindrops dotting his gold-rimmed, government-issue glasses. In the bewildering matrix of Afghan politics, Dostum has frequentlyand nimblyswitched allegiances. -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. The Americans, up on the ridge, are using GPS units to finalize coordinates. When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. 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. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. He studied Arabic in Yemen and then enrolled in a madrasah, or religious school, in northern Pakistan. DP hats, so I dig them out of my bag and pass them around. Some huddle together to watch the gray pillars of smoke from the bombing runs. We had an entire 250-man cavalry ready to charge. The Regulators wanted Dostums right-hand man, Commander Lal, to hold off while they got their aircraft in position, but Lal had already given the order. To this day the war continues and Dostum as First Vice President remains a staunch ally of America. The credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . Outmanned, the Green Berets decided to move out on horseback. 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. Advertise Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. When the two aircraft were on location, the Green Berets radioed Alliance commanders to evacuate civilians from the area. "And to me, that was a plus when you got saddled with a mission that was going to be as complex as this one." First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. They were forced to spend the night on the river bank after dense fog made it impossible to navigate their Zodiac inflatable boats. But I never travel without a few Mr. 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. real general dostum and mitch nelson - diagrammix.com With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. Horse Soldiers Analysis - eNotes.com None of these guys are clean actors." The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. Theyre polite but wary about having their pictures taken as they set up their night-vision scopes. John, he says. I had jumped a train in Tajikistan, snuck into Uzbekistan and remained holed up in a dusty border town. If the Taliban can rule successfully, let them. A year later, betrayed by his second in command, who had defected to the Taliban, Dostum fled to Turkey. The Regulators have served in the gulf war, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and in other places they cant talk about. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . 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. Instead, 12 Strong simply tells a storya true one. Most of the fallen look as if they were killed instantly. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. Note that there is strong language throughout, as well as violence. Once we hit Keshendeh-ye Bala, we picked up a road and followed it north in a truck Dostums men had captured from the Taliban. 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. 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. 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. Rashid later admitted that not only did he not witness it but it the event wasfictional. I'm playing Lieutenant Colonel Max Bowers in the movie. A bizarre story called The Convoy of Death surfaced and painted Dostum and the team in a negative light. (Within a week, he will be named deputy minister of defense for the new interim government of Afghanistan.) SFC Bill Bennett RIP Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. He talked for half an hour. In real-life, Dostum became the Vice President of Afghanistan, as stated prior to the movie's end credits. The next morning, about 60 Afghan cavalry came thundering into the compound. Once the plane got there, it circled about six times, Paul says. In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. The bomb lands and hits and bam! This was a guy we considered part of our unit, says Mark. 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. Soldiers run up to the bite in the wall, shoot into the fort, and then scurry back down. We thought Kunduz was [going to be] a full-scale attack, says Captain Mark. Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. -Horse Soldiers book, Yes. 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 . By the time they come up and look, you are on them. The latter approach was well suited to Dostums style of attack. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. And we were going to oblige them.. Later, one is shown penning a goodbye letter to his family. In 2014, General Dostum became Vice President of Afghanistan. A man whois said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. Ten minutes later, another 40 riders galloped up. They spend every day training for war, teaching other armies about war, and waiting for the call to fight in the next war. -The Fayetteville Observer. Hemsworth and Negahban convey the tension between the two men brilliantly, and Negahban had this to say: This was the first film that truly shows what Afghans went through and how we united with them to achieve our goal.. A clock sounds loudly. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. The videotape cuts to the next morning. Nutsch commented: Were humbled that a movie has been made about our teams mission in that pivotal post 9/11 period. So, I worked for him, directly," says Riggle. The man is terribly thin and severely hypothermic. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. Marco Polo App Improves Communication for Military Families. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. The rest mounted up and rode north. The Green Berets call it the Gap of Doom. Some hide their faces, others convulse and shiver. The book was quietly taken out of print. He says it was an area sympathetic to the Taliban and that his heart went out to them. It didnt seem to matter that there was no actual evidence. 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. 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. However, the rugged Afghan terrain forced them to adopt the rudimentary practices of the Afghan horse soldiers. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. 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. Later, several months after the Taliban fell, the special operations teams returned to Mazar-i-Sharif to bury the piece of the World Trade Center. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. I suggest to Bill that we remove Walker from the hospital, where he might be killed by other patients, many of whom were fighting against him at the fortress. Planning a one-day live-ammo training exercise can require six months of paperwork. Each member had an average of eight years experience and most had combat experience in either Desert Storm, Kosovo or Somalia. The Regulators rush to catch up in two mud-covered cars. An old man yells, God bless you. Each night, Dostum would sit down with the Americans and lay out the battle plan for the next day. At night we sit around talking over stainless steel cups of coffee. Later that week, Dostum casually mentions that 3,000 other foreign fighters from the surrender at Kunduz are in a Soviet-era prison in the city of Sheberghan, 80 miles west. After the seventh grade, Dostum left school to help his father on the family farm. 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. Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. "The battle at the end was not depicted accurately," says the real Bob Pennington. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. 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. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. The idea that that Dostum would actually savethe day for an embattledAmerica is an irony that has not fully played out. They are known as the quiet professionals because their missions are covert and, for obvious reasons, they rarely publicize their exploits., Actor and producer Thad Luckinbill commented on the need to just be authentic and pay these guys the respect that they deserve and tell the story that should be told., One of the most fascinating threads throughout the movie is the forging of an uneasy partnership between Captain Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth) and Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban). Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, on the decision to make the movie: Remarkably enough, there have been very few films made about the Armys Special Forces. More than 400 prisoners are said to have died; I count only about 50 bodies in the courtyard. Fiber Optic Trailer Auction, Articles R