Outmanned, the Green Berets decided to move out on horseback. He ended up in the Takhar Province, in the northeastern part of the country. They linked up with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Uzbek fighters. 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. 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. By the time the team had arrived in Qali-i-Jangi they were gaunt, sick but eager to keep up the fight. When a Marxist government came to power in a bloody coup in 1978, the new regimes radical reforms ignited a guerrilla war with the mujahidin who based themselves in the countrys remote mountain ranges. 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. The prisoners were not properly searched by members of the Northern Alliance before they were crammed onto trucks and the troops had not realized the American Lindh was among them. So I approach a war movie set in the days after 9/11 with a certain amount of skepticism. What '12 Strong' Tells Us about Afghanistan - The National Interest Were not about to stand up and watch whats going on. We had two days to plan, another Regulator says. 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. However, the real Amy Nutsch, the wife of Mark Nutsch, was six months pregnant at the time of the September 11 attacks. He rose through the ranks quickly becoming a paratrooper in 1973, an armored unit in 1978 and Battalion 734 KhAD by 1983. Dostums men are touring the battle scene. Mitch Nelson, a character based on Nutsch. Real Life Special Forces Heroes Helped Keep 12 Strong True To Life Mark Nutsch | Keppler Speakers 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. The book was quietly taken out of print. 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. At first I thought, Why not let them rule? he says. He points out that the word "Tiangi" actually means gap, so when they refer to the "Tiangi gap" in the movie, they're actually saying the gap, gap.Pennington said that with regard to the enemy vehicle (BM-21) launching rockets in and around the Tiangi, it did happen, several times. Is Captain Mitch Nelson still alive? Some details of their mission they cant discuss. The Regulators were joined by at least three CIA officers kitted in full combat gear, including a 32-year-old ex-Marine named Mike Spann. It is rated R for violence and language throughout. Now, in a scene that has been repeated over and over for the past 2,000 years, a warlord is arriving. The two Green Berets are solemn; they insist on driving through the gap so they can tell their story from the right perspective. Andy chimes in. The general climbs out of the tiny black car and tucks his hands into his belt. Dostum, portrayed brilliantly by Navid Negahban, comes off as a kind of Obi Wan Kenobi, the ancient-wisdom-dispensing warrior. Under intense pressure, the Regulators had called in a perfect surgical strikea bomb drop in a crowded urban area without a single civilian casualty. However, he had been deployed in the Middle East and around the globe. Captain Nelson was determined to get the mission done in a timely fashion because of the promise he made to his superiors. Dostum, a former Communist general, had a reputation for violence. They huddle in brown blankets, trying to avoid the soaking rain. After that hit, all of them took off on foot to Mazar. All the while ostracizing the now First Vice President Dostum who is currently in exile in Ankara plotting his next move. In an air attack, says Air Force Steve, you do one of two things. The doctors huddle around a steel-drum stove, smiling and talking, oblivious to the pain and suffering around them. 12 Strong | On-set visit with Navid Negahban "General Dostum" The unexplained feeling of relief when you know your loved one is safe. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved, The scene at the hospital is ugly. SFC Bill Bennett RIP Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. As portrayed by actor Chris Hemsworth in the major motion picture, 12 Strong, Mark Nutsch (aka Mitch Nelson in the film) shares lessons learned in the now-declassified saga of a U.S. Special Forces team that overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to help achieve a historic military victory. Mark Nutsch Age, Wife, Family, Story, Biography & More I target the third bunker. We will never end wars if we dont understand how to win them. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. Nutsch is portrayed by Chris Hemsworth in the movie and renamed Mitch Nelson. Beyond the high steel gates is a confusion of trucks, headlights, and guns, and the sound of men moaning in pain. Ka-RUMPH! Then the radios are jammed with Dostums men shouting and celebrating. The info I had was that he was MIA, Mark says. -SOFREP, In the movie, Chris Hemsworth's character's wife is not pregnant. With Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pea, Navid Negahban. Dostum was very concerned about us getting too close to the battlefield, Captain Mark had told me back at the barracks. With the help of his troops and Muslim counterparts in Afghanistan, he not only captured the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but also topple the Taliban. Their captors brought them here en route to the Sheberghan prison. 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. Then the bombs are dropped, and I look through the scope and see body parts flying everywhere. After days of killing as many Taliban as they could they were accused of murdering prisonersin shipping containers. Surprisingly Dostum agreed. Rifles, night-vision gear, and boots are strewn everywhere. 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. I asked him to describe it, just to be sure, says Will. Payback was certainly on the minds of some members of the team, while others focused primarily on the mission at hand. The gear seemed to float from the landing site under a procession of brown blankets and turbans. Mullah Nuri insists he doesnt know them and they refuse to come up. Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. 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.. They just cant figure it out. Late in the afternoon, a convoy of mud-spattered off-road vehicles pulls up, and a dozen dusty Americans in tan chocolate chip camo climb out. After a final check of their gear, they head into the fortress. Then he rides up on horseback with one pant leg untucked, looking like Bluto.. Mark Nutsch's team, ODA 595, was dropped in Dehi, roughly 100 miles from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. -The Fayetteville Observer. Their closest call came toward the end of the campaign, before theyd reached the Tingi Pass; Id gotten an account of it last night from Mike, a big, bearded, soft-spoken soldier. A cavalry charge is an amazing thing, Will says. The bread we ate was half-mixed with dirt. 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. There were some deep unresolved internal conflicts because of the death of Mike Spann and why they over their protests had been sent to Kunduz. 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. "We had seven years of rehearsal for that relationship," says Hemsworth. The wholesale conversion of talibs to the government side during theKunduz surrender had created confusion in how many Taliban existed in the North. There were roughly 200 paid Afghan soldiers under General Dostum's command and an undetermined number of part-time militia. He was later shot in the leg when the makeshift prison he was in became the scene of a violent Taliban uprising. Over chai (tea), he announces good news. They chose not bullets or grenades but ordnance that ranged from Maverick missiles to laser-guided bombs. to talk. Our warhad been big footed by Iraq. Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. General Abdul Rashid Dostum had arrived. Mitch Nelson in the film about a team of Green Berets on a strategic mission in Afghanistan in the days immediately following 9/11. John Walker Lindh was the second Irish American jihadi I had met who was trained in Bin Ladens camps. Although I spoke out on behalf of the team the media, didntpublish my eyewitness photos and testimony because it would go against a narrative thata Pashtun backed by a European-backed central government must rule Kabul, not a coalition of regional leaders.We did not want the Taliban voting themselves back into power, yet we restrained the grass roots power of the ethnic minorities. The Taliban had surrendered at Qali i Jangi to CIA officer JR and Dostum and surrenders were under way in Kunduz. The Uzbeks and Hazara took to the mountains to escape the mechanized columns of the Taliban, Those among Dostums men who had remained in Afghanistan now became guerrilla fighters, moving on horseback holed up in the mountains under the command of his former number two La. We jump in a Toyota off-road vehicle and set off. 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. The men were thrilled; they were so happy. Infiltrate the 12 Strong true story further by watching the documentary and videos below. 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. General Abdul Rashid Dostum and Captain Mark Nutsch achieved this unexpected success in November 2001 by breaking out of a rebel pocket of the Hindu Kush Mountains and seizing Mazar i Sharif,. It was old-fashioned professionalism. Later, I find out that theyve come hoping to retrieve the body of Central Intelligence Agency officer Johnny Micheal Spann, who was killed by Taliban prisonersthe first American combat casualty in Afghanistan. He is a thick man with a pug nose, bad skin, tiny teeth, and a cruel stare. This story needed to be shared with the rest of the country. A good reminder for all Americans are the scenes portraying the oppressive lives the Afghan people were subjected to under Taliban rule.

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