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. Then came September 11. In the morning Villagers come out in the crisp, golden light of morning, shivering and tired. Now, on most mornings, Dostum emerges from his house, squinting into a crowd of turbaned men waiting for an audience. Its a gritty reminder of who our common enemy wasone that not only strove to kill Americans, but also attempted to force its archaic way of life on whole countries. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. "I was on his command element and worked with him in November of 2001 in Afghanistan. They just cant figure it out. At eight that night, we pulled in to Shulgareh, which is the biggest town in the valley. Then, here is Dostum, says Will, a guy trained in tanks whos using tactics developed in Genghis Khans time.. "My men are hungry. 2018 Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, Copyright 2013 DPx Gear, All Rights Reserved, ious article:Finding Bergdahl The Final Chapter, article:Erik Prince An American Commando In Exile, The Hack Part Two: The Hunt for Clinton Dirt, The Hack Part Three: Deception and Deceit, The Hack Part One The Attack On America, The Story of How Robert Young Pelton Created DPx Gear, Erik Prince An American Commando In Exile, General Dostum and 12 Strong: THE LEGEND OF HEAVY D AND THE BOYS. We havent seen a TV or news in two months, one soldier says apologetically. 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. He wont tell me who to contact, or provide any information that would get him out of the crudely equipped hospital. 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. In real life, Bob Pennington wasn't badly injured by a surrendering enemy fighter who blew himself up with his own grenade, an act that leaves Michael Shannon's character clinging to life as his fellow soldiers hurry to extract him. Mitch Nelson," a. Mitch Nelson, a U.S. Army captain with Green Berets Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, . After a cinematic pause to allow the implications of his arrival to sink in, Dostum phones the village leadership from the Audi: Send out your weapons and any fighters or were going in. 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. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. The then-secret Uzbekistan air base, also known as K2, is depicted as a sort of tent city in the movie. You have to understand: Dostum had told them, If an American gets hurt . How do you love your family and leave them to go to war? The men know their story and I wrote it down. At the time, General Dostum did have a reputation for violence and turning on allies during battle. Dozens of dark-eyed men in turbans scramble into battered Toyota pickup trucks and assorted four-wheel-drive vehicles. 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. They had gone only about 600 meters when they started taking fire. They also need blankets.". Dostum and Mitch Nelson remain close friends to this day. The estimated 30 Alliance soldiers who died have already been taken away by their friends. And that is a story worth telling. 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 slept on the ground the first couple of nights." The Real Story of General Dostum and 12 Strong Green Berets But the story gradually emerges. Washington, D.C.. They sit patiently for hours, clutching tiny pieces of paper, seeking his aid. Dont I know you? one of them says. Mitch Nelson (1963-) was a US Army captain during the Afghanistan War . At first he is hostile, like a kitten baring its claws. 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. The team had been working together for two years and the average age was 32 years old. 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 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. So we haven't even taken the southern part of the country and we're still working with the Northern Alliance. We set up in a bomb crater and used it as our bunker. Later on he had a dark premonition. They told us, If Dostum wants to go to Kabul, you are going with him. Military historians have called it one of the most successful unconventional warfare campaigns in U.S. history. When the council broke up, Dostum stood and motioned toward the horses. The problem is that the the Convoy of Death story is false. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. He says it was an area sympathetic to the Taliban and that his heart went out to them. We pass the twisted, stripped wrecks of trucks and Toyotas. Hemsworth plays Capt. It's a miracle of sorts given what they faced, a feat that the movie does a good job conveying. He would take a village by getting the mounted guys up close. In all, less than 100 Special Forces soldiers toppled the Taliban government. 12 Strong (2018) - IMDb At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. Matt yelled, Duck your head and get down! And that pilot dropped a shitload of bombs, Mike said. Wrapped in blankets, members of the mullahs entourage fix me with soulless stares. At the end of the Soviet period Dostum had 45,000 troops with about half of them as village reserves. 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. 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. The bomb lands and hits and bam! These are two of the Taliban who chased Dostum out of Mazar in May 1997, but still he treats them more like honored guests than prisoners of war. The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. "They were very mature, very family-orientated," Bob Pennington said. Shattered, bearded men lie everywhere on stretchers, covered by thin blue sheets. The bread we ate was half-mixed with dirt. Some details of their mission they cant discuss. True Story of 12 Strong: The Horse Soldiers - Average Joes After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. This included Detachment Commander Mark Nutsch (Chris Hemsworth onscreen) and Assistant Detachment Commander Bob Pennington (Michael Shannon in the movie). The twisted rag doll bodies of dead Taliban fighters lie heads back, fingers clutched, legs sprawled as if they fell running. Buzkashi is the way Afghan boys learn to rideand its the way Afghan politics is played: There are few rules and the toughest, meanest, and most brutal player takes the prize. The people of Dostums village were so impressed with his leadership that they recruited 600 men for him to command. Dostum dismounted and shook everyones hand, then sat on a mound covered with carpets. Ironically, it was this sort of diplomatic triumphthe surrender at Kunduz just before my arrivaland not a battle that gave the Regulators their most bitter experience of the war. The task inspires him to try to express his feelings about the past two months. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. There were roughly 200 paid Afghan soldiers under General Dostum's command and an undetermined number of part-time militia. After a while we soon got along. The rest of the time they travel. You could see horses falling. An outcrop obscured views of the last 250 meters to the target. Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) refuses. 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. Down below, small Afghan horses are nipping the dry grass on the safe side of the hill, their riders chatting while awaiting the order to charge. 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. Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. He refused to talk to his parents and he was takenback to our guesthouse for his protection. Some stayed behind to handle logistics and supplies. Down the road at the Regulators make-shift barracks, a call comes over the Motorola: Pack your shit. The men quickly gather their gear, as they have so many times before. 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. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The joy was short-lived. He lies staring at the ceiling. 12 Strong - Navid Negahban "General Dostum" [On-Set Interview]Subscribe and click the notification bell HERE: http://goo.gl/SrrTlTSubscribe to Filmisnow Movi. Infiltrate the 12 Strong true story further by watching the documentary and videos below. ", Yes. 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. When the television begins to blare, the men stare at the screen. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is 12 Strong?" It was somewhere between harassing and accurateenough to keep our heads down. "I don't need food for my horses," he said. At first, the planes wouldnt fly below 15,000 feetthe brass was worried about surface-to-air missilesso targeting was sketchy. He is a kingmaker who works the ethnic minority to choose who will rule and who will fail. Fittingly, a lot of the actors in the movie had very little or no experience on a horse as well, so there wasn't very much acting needed to convey the team's lack of experience riding horses. Twenty Urgan missiles point toward the village. Nuri has the black look of a Pashtun who has endured a lifetime of war. The horses cast long shadows in the late afternoon. Three years of drought have broken: A cold rain pours down in gray sheets. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. 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. It wasnt done perfectly, but it will never be forgotten., Over 3200 prisoners were kept in Sheberghan Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Open your eyes! We thought he was wounded. That is one of the premises Osama bin Laden operates under. Dostum wasnt about to let an American casualty put a premature end to his battle plan. 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. But coordination soon improved, and the improbable allies fell into a rhythm: The Americans would bomb; Dostums men would attack. Since I was a guest of General Dostum it was a little difficult for the men to avoid me. 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. Because of this, Dostum was forced to flee . 12 STRONG Rebeca Aguilar-Diaz PROFESSOR - Course Hero -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. Dostums strategy was now their strategy: to ride roughshod over Taliban positions up the Darra-e Suf Valley, roll north over the Tingi Pass in the Alborz Range, then sweep north across the plains and liberate Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistans second largest city. The real-life base wasn't built up at that point and amounted to little more than a series of Soviet-era bunkers. "It's your city, general. The pilots, however, could not lock in on the laser-sighting device that the team was using to identify the target. '12 Strong' turns heroic tale into generic war movie Fifty tents later, they told us to pack our shit again.. Yes, Bob Pennington, portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie, had a herniated disc and suffered from excruciating back pain during the mission. We were at the right place at the right time, says Steve. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. You felt the air leave. 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. "We knew nothing about these guys," retired Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland said. They have Beretta pistols strapped to their thighs like gunslingers and short M-4 rifles slung across their chests. General Abul Rashid Dostum Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. Somehow I make it across the open area. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. It took about an hour to get the aircraft. Pennington is portrayed by Michael Shannon in the movie. As he leans into the Afghan wind, the light falls, and a moment in history fades. The mystery of missing prisoners was never matched up to the careful medical records kept of each al Qaeda and Taliban detainee kept by doctors and local NGOs. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. I feel he is my brother. When it looked like they would break the back of the position, he would ride through as fast as he could and keep the Taliban on the run., With their knowledge of military history, the Regulators appreciated the ironies of this strange war: The Taliban had gone from the muj style of fightingin the mountains, on horsebackto working in mechanized columns, says Will, another member of 595. 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. They use simple wooden saddles covered with a piece of carpet, and short stirrups that put our knees up by our heads. The videotape cuts to the next morning. Despite actively fighting the Taliban, it was not until Santos introducedDostum to JSOC that the United States might want to give him some help. "I created the face without the use of models or photos," said artist Douwe Blumberg, who designed the statue in collaboration with Mark Nutsch. It didnt seem to matter that there was no actual evidence. We were surprised at how good they were, says Captain Mark. These are the soldiers I saw back at Qala Jangi preparing to go in and retrieve the body of the dead CIA agent, Mike Spann. SFC Bill Bennett RIP Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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. Military families cant escape the fact that weve now been at war nearly 17 years. There are tanks. One Leadership Skill That Turned 12 'Horse Soldiers' Into An Elite What made working with him particularly dangerous was that he was known for switching sides during several conflicts with Afghanistan. He has ended the bloody battle for Kunduz by negotiating with Mullah Faizal and Mullah Nuri, the two most senior Taliban leaders in the north. In the last two semi-wars we have been in, every time American soldiers get killed we pull out. The radio crackles with call signs and traffic broadcast between bombardiers and the American soldiers. One of the soldiers from the ODA 595 died later while serving in Iraq. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. When war first came to Afghanistan, two decades ago, he built his first stronghold here to guard the village. Dostum and the Green Berets drove by them as they headed for Kunduz. A cavalry charge is an amazing thing, Will says. When Dostum frowns, his features gather into a dark, Stalin-like scowlhis usual expression for formal portraits. Where you from? The man finally answers. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. The U.S. refused to work with Dostum until former UN envoy Charlie Santos pointed out to the CIA that the only functioning fighting group besidesthe Panjshiris ofMassoud wereDostums Uzbeks. Dostum has not been home in five years to the village of Khvajeh Do Kuh. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. There are 86 al Qaeda fighter in the basement, including John Walker Lindh. Military families will relate to the goodbyes. Their captors brought them here en route to the Sheberghan prison. Commandeering whole villages, women in burkas with not even eyes showing, the stoning of a woman only for being caught in adultery, and the execution of a mother for daring to teach her daughters to read. It turns out theyre staying next door, guests in Dostums house.