Its a high, lonely place. 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. And waited. 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. real general dostum and mitch nelson Uncategorized September 20, 2021. Where you from? The man finally answers. The twisted rag doll bodies of dead Taliban fighters lie heads back, fingers clutched, legs sprawled as if they fell running. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. Perhaps theyll convince any surviving prisoners to surrender. It served as Pauls command post. There is aneed to never forget the sacrifices men make in war. I figured I could whip my horse and run across an open area, Mike said. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. Nutsch said that the movie leaves out a key river that the men often had to swim across in the freezing cold water with their horses, one of the bigger obstacles they faced on the mission. 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. Andy chimes in. At 16, he started working as a laborer in the government-owned gas refinery in nearby Sheberghan, where he dabbled in union politics. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. The only mystery was the lack of interest in the NGO, governments and media in investigating the facts. This is where the Taliban made their last stand. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. The sound of canon firecontinues without a break but at a slower pace. A man who is said by some journalists to define violence and treachery. According to historian and author Doug Stanton, who spent five years. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. 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. Our Team Fifty tents later, they told us to pack our shit again.. Some were angry then, some had been through enough wars to see what was coming. Nothing of the war, death, exile, and victory that have shaped the man sitting in the front seat. We fought with nothing but hope.. 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. 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme. A day laterThursday, five days since the uprising broke outthey are still firing sporadically at soldiers removing bodies from the courtyard of the fortress. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." He takes my hand in a meaty grip and apologizes for being dirty and tired; he has just driven eight hours on a shattered road from Kunduz. 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. Not everything goes to plan during a raid on a village Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. When the videotape of my interview with Walker hits the airwaves back in the U.S., the country focuses its white-hot anger on him, and some of that anger spills over onto me. Despite knowledge of the mission being available to the public, it had remained largely unheard of until the book. Bill and the team were wearing armor decorated with my logo when he died. CHRIS HEMSWORTH, left, as Captain Mitch Nelson and NAVID NEGAHBAN as General Dostum in "12 STRONG," (Warner Bros. Pictures) CHRIS HEMSWORTH as Captain Mitch Nelson in "12 STRONG." (David James) I could see the horses blasting out the other side. Yes. Dostum and Mitch Nelson remain close friends to this day. The bread we ate was half-mixed with dirt. You call in an airplane; you say, Can you see that place? (Within a week, he will be named deputy minister of defense for the new interim government of Afghanistan.) He went on to serve in the US Army, although he did not see combat until the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. -Legion of Brothers, No. People demanded that I do something, says Dostum. The men know their story and I wrote it down. Furthermore, as shown in the movie, they were grossly outnumbered. You can bomb it until there is no resistance, or you bomb and, as soon as the bomb goes off, you charge. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. -The Fayetteville Observer, In addition to ODA 595, three other teams were selected. One key point noted repeatedly (and military spouses already know this!) It feels like a scene out of a bad Mexican movie. They just cant figure it out. He would say he is going to attack at about 2 p.m., says Air Force Steve. The men who first defended this post with me are all dead now. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. I am surprised, then, to see Dostum wrap his blue turban around his head and chin and stride into the village . Although nighttime gunfire is normal in Afghanistan, there is an urgency to the sound of the deep explosions that come from the 19th-century fortress of Qala Jangi, just over a mile east from Khoda Barq, a Soviet-era apartment complex west of Mazar. Paul picks up the story, raindrops dotting his gold-rimmed, government-issue glasses. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. 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. We must honor their truth not the fiction that creates more wars. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. 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. 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 think they got it, they got the spirit of the Special Forces team in the post-9/11 moment in American history," said team leader Mark Nutsch, portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie. The rounds are zinging over my head. His lack of combat experience is pointed out in the movie. Finally after two weeks they admitted they could not smuggle me across. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. ", Yes. Under intense pressure, the Regulators had called in a perfect surgical strikea bomb drop in a crowded urban area without a single civilian casualty. Next door, in Dostums pink house, Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri sit on pillows in a small room. It took just a few months for American and Afghan forces to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan; thus ousting them from power. Again he began integrating mujahideen into the political military ranks among them his number two against the Taliban Lal Kamadan. However, one was dropped due to a lack of confidence in the team. 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. Until a group of 480 al Qaeda and talibs showed up at the gates of Mazar. The mission was also chronicled in Doug Stanton's 2009 book, Horse Soldiers, on which the movie is based. What your name? 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. Before the arrival of the Americans, Dostum fought mostly at night. I have been to America and know the quality of life they enjoy. The truck-mounted ZU antiaircraft guns are cranked down to eye level. I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. 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. There are twelve Green Berets here and two Air Force forward air controllers. As they began unloading their gear, they were met by Afghans in turbans, their faces wrapped. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. We set up in a bomb crater and used it as our bunker. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house. Various close ups of American Specia. 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. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. It was pretty painful, Paul says. Yes. The book is the inspiration behind the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film called "12 Strong" that was released in 2018 and stars Chris Hemsworth as Capt. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. 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. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. I had first tried to meet the General in May of 1997. We did all that we could. Both of the named Green Berets are commanding officers, John Mulholland and Max Bowers. After four days of bombardment, the interior of the fort is a scene of utter devastation. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. It moves past politics and rhetoric to provide a picture of what our military members choose to go through willingly. Then came September 11. No one knew just when or where the team would be sent. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, is moving into a new home with his wife and daughter on September 11, 2001, after receiving an assignment to staff duty under Lieutenant Colonel Bowers. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. 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. 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. At the last minute the Agency was told by the SF ground commander that his men were going in with or without the Agency. I wondered if they could adapt to these circumstances. All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. In a tiny, sparse room are his father, Dostums former teacher, and a village elder. With assistance from US special forces soldiers from the US 5th Special Forces Group, Abdul Rashid Dostum's Northern Alliance forces were able to call in close air support against the Taliban fighters in Bescham and drive them out of the village. It was at K2 that their team received new orders, after which it was no longer a mission about personnel recovery. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. 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. In the movie, another team member arrives to pick them up and tells them about the attacks. I ride in the warlords communications truck, a white Land Cruiser. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. They send off steam in the cold night, their brown skin white with dust. But the story gradually emerges. Yes. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. After four times or so, they didnt get bombed, so they just stayed there. The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. The only sign that something is about to happen is a white contrail high in the sky. These soldiers, I soon realize, come from much the same background as Dostums: sons of miners, farmers, and factory workers; some are men whose only way out of poverty is the military. The credits claim that General Dostum and Captain Mitch Nelson have remained friends in real life . "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. We moved our targeting up along the ridgeline to the second bunker. Biography Mitch Nelson was born in Alma, Kansas, and he married a Hispanic woman and had a daughter. Now the CIA and spec ops have been let loose., Dostums men were a loose alliance that grew with every victory against the Taliban. -The Fayetteville Observer. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. I now have a friend named Mark, Dostum says, referring to the Green Beret captain. And theyd been told that he was the most powerful anti-Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan. Men who are the Armys elite, who are college educated and fluent in several languages, yet who are paid little more than a manager at McDonalds. Im looking through the optics while rounds are zinging all around us. At this point in the tale, Mike nodded toward Paul, who was sitting next to him on the couch at Dostums guest house. They were setting up fixed positionsbunkers with Y-shaped fighting trencheson the northern side of the gap. 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. You raise your flag," Nelson says. The men in the room try to act formally, but as Dostum starts to leave, some begin to cry. Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. He described the building we were sitting on to a T. Finally, Air Force Steve guided the pilot to the correct building, and he dropped the ordnance: direct hit. The Taliban are running. Advertise He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. If he goes off the deep end and starts whacking people, advise higher up and maybe pull out. This was the most incredibly open mission we have ever done., Before heading in-country, the soldiers had been briefed only vaguely about Dostum. Every time the plane would circle, the Taliban would run behind their bunker. Toward the end of September, the word came down: Pack your shit., Fifteen days later, the team boarded a C-5 Galaxy with a secret flight plan. The book was quietly taken out of print. But the US Armed Forces were thin on the ground, and were potentially facing around 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Sidelined, and in exile in Turkey, In 2009, Dostum was begged by President Karzai to come back from exile to reelect him and again in 2014 Dostum engineered the victory ofPresidentGhani.only to go back into exile. ODA 595 and its commander, Capt. He rolls in a John Wayne walk to Commander Lal, whos in charge of the standoff. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. Finally, the pilot says he has the target in sight. Same thing: We identity it and boom! Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. We were surprised at how good they were, says Captain Mark. For a brief moment, the general stands triumphant, the conquering hero, the bring-er of peace, the warlord who has ended war in the northand, therefore, perhaps eliminated his own reason for being. But I never travel without a few Mr. At a full gallop, its a smooth ride. 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. 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. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. The dirty gray mushroom cloud slowly bends in the wind. The Horse Soldiers monument in New York City is not based on any one person. 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. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. We wind through the tight pass alongside a swollen mountain river, go over the pass, then head a kilometer down the south side of the divide and stop at a freshly mudded house. 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. The enemy was 700 meters out and moving quickly. That heavy reliance on tanks and trucks meant the Taliban wound up fighting a defensive, Russian-style war. 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. They landed near a mud-walled compound in the remote Darra-e Suf valley in northern Afghanistan. The movie isn't revealing anything new. Dostum chuckles and denies the allegation. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. Of course, war is cruel and brutal; any person who has ever read a single page of history understands the unfortunate necessity and commonality of war in all cultures, in all countries around . We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. Its a helluva thing we do, isnt it? General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. He told them his name was Abdul Hamid. The Regulators flew in from Uzbekistan at night on a blacked-out Chinook helicopter. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" I screened the war drama 12 Strong with a group of military spouse bloggers recently in Hollywood. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri refuse: They claim they dont know these people. 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. Wide four members of American Special Forces and General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance2. What else do you expect my enemies to say? he asks. More hits: Tall, fat smoke plumes cast moving shadows on the grass. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. 12 Strong, from Warner Bros. Pictures, will release on January 19, 2018. I was at the prison in Sheberghan when they unloaded the trucks and watched the Red Cross medics count the dead and note the wounded. I thought the guy was this ruthless warlord, one soldier says. The pilot asked us, Whats the effect [of the bomb attack on the truck]? We yell over the radio, We dont know! Here Spann interviews Lindh but Lindh remains silent. Dostum is actually a nickname thatmeans my friend was born Abdul Rashid in 1954 in the desolate village of Khvajeh Do Kuh, about 90 miles west of Mazar. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. 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.
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