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. The actions of the ODA 595 helped lay the groundwork for that victory. They didnt have enough cloth for shrouds, so they had to bury dead comrades in burqas. 12 Strong Best Quotes - 'We're on our own.' - MovieQuotesandMore 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. The Regulators have served in the gulf war, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and in other places they cant talk about. 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. He couldnt expose his small force to Taliban missile strikes, explains Captain Mark, so they would hit and retreat. They linked up with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Uzbek fighters. -Den of Geek. The enemy was 700 meters out and moving quickly. As the Hespan drips into his veins, I fire up the video camera, and the man begins to tell his story. 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. I get off the horse and say, Screw this; Im walking.. Up until now the CIA has been hog-tied. The conflict we expected to be over in months inexplicably continues on. First, a soft gray cloud of smoke rises in a lazy ring. They were potentially facing about 50,000 Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Then the radios are jammed with Dostums men shouting and celebrating. Capt. Early in the afternoon on November 10, Dostum reached Mazar. The money was hardly enough for feeding my horses, Dostum says. They also had two boys, then ages 4 and 3 (in the movie, they have a little girl). I will let what you see be the truth.. The rocket howls over the roof of General Dostums house in Khoda Barq at about 10 p.m. Its November 26, my second day in Afghanistan, and already Im in the middle of a hellacious firefight. The first monument to CIA officer Mike Spann, the first casualty in the war on terror was erected by General Dostum. 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. The first thing we wanted to do was to say to Dostum, The Americans are here, Paul explains, and to make it a fearsome prospect to mess with us. The Americans set up their gear at Dostums command postwhich overlooked Taliban positions about six miles awayand immediately began the process of calling in close air support, or CAS. I tell the prisoner where he is and who hes talking to. 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. Their home base is Fort Campbell, Kentucky, but they spend only a few months of the year there. No one individual was the model for the statue. In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, the elite U.S. Special Forces unit, Operational Detachment-Alpha 595 (ODA 595 for short), was one of three teams of Special Forces soldiers sent into Afghanistan. "We dispersed the team at several positions along the ridges of the Tiangi." They had to kill their horses for food. 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. Airstrikes, AC130s and Hazara guards had killed all but 86 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters Robert Young Pelton, all rights reserved. Perhaps we really ought to think of the Star Wars icon as an. The crowd of men follows Dostum into his fathers compound. Travel and accommodations were provided by Warner Bros. Pictures. 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. who will play the wife of Mitch Nelson opposite her real-life husband, Chris Hemsworth. 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. The old men are frail, with deeply lined faces. Nelson commits to leading 595 into Afghanistan as word of the disastrous terrorist attacks that day breaks. As we drive through a drought-ravaged wasteland, he points out battlefields and the sites of ambushes and skirmishes. Various close ups of American Specia. That he is known to be a deft alliance makerand breaker. 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. These Special Forces soldiers took on the Taliban on horseback Anticipating more fireworks, I head there with him and move into another of his residences, a huge, high-walled compound that includes a mosque and, improbably, an unfinished health-club complex. Then the concussion: ka-RUMPH! Our mission was simple, another soldier says. Over 5000 Taliban remained hidden in surrounding villages. The men Im staying with have dubbed their unit the Regulators, after the 19th-century cowboys who were hired by cattle barons to guard their herds from rustlers. Mitch Nelson | Historica Wiki | Fandom All the while, we could see troops moving and disappearing. An old man yells, God bless you. The post was in an uproar, says Paul. Both are awake, both unwilling to break the silence as their young child sleeps nearby. Our Afghans are running out of ammo. 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. Dostum enlisted in the Afghan militaryone of the few ways for poor men to escape lives of labor and hardship in rural Afghanistan. What your name? 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. Our commanders said they didnt know what to expect, but at least they were honest enough to admit it, the Green Beret continues.
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