THE FIRST TO SEE ‘ ACTION!’
Movie shows horseback heroism of Special Forces in A’stan
ON Oct. 13, 2001, with the United States still reeling from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, about a dozen Americans were aboard a plane flying to Uzbekistan.
One was Chief Warrant Officer Cal Spencer, a family guy with a handyman hobby. Another was Capt. Dean Nosorog, who had just been on his honeymoon in Tahiti with his new wife, Kelly. Nosorog was forced to end the trip prematurely the moment he saw the Twin Towers collapse on the TV in their hotel’s lobby. Days earlier, Capt. Mitch Nelson was with his wife at the obstetrician’s office. Their first baby was due in two months. It didn’t matter. Now he was back in action.
These men were part of the US Army’s 5th Special Forces Group. They were en route to K2, a base in southeastern Uzbekistan, a helicopter ride away from Afghanistan, where they would soon start a war.
The new movie “12 Strong,” starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, tells the true story of this small band of Special Forces soldiers who, with minimal preparation, led the ground fight against the Taliban’s 50,000-strong army in the early days of the war in Afghanistan.
“The means by which they did this is unique in American history because the Special Forces had never been used before as a lead element in military action,” Doug Stanton, writer of the book “Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan,” on which the film is based, told The Post. Stanton and the filmmakers changed most of the soldiers’ names.
SPECIAL Forces are unlike any other part of the military. Its soldiers fight guerilla wars, meaning they not only engage in combat but also play the part of diplomats and nation-builders. They rapidly learn and assimilate unfamiliar languages, customs and cultures. They confidently adapt to inhospitable terrain.
And they were perfect for Afghanistan: a country full of disparate warlords, numerous languages (Dari, Pashto, Uzbek) and a treacherous, hilly landscape where traditional military vehicles don’t make it very far.
“The mission was very clear. It wasn’t open-ended. First, go there and survive,” said Stanton, whose book “The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War” was published in September. “And two, make the country unsafe for al Qaeda and Taliban elements where the 9/11 attacks were fomented.”
The operation was designed for a small, discreet crew — even the 5th Group’s wives and kids had no idea where they were. “There wasn’t a lot of time to move thousands of troops into Afghanistan, which would’ve been an invasion,” said Stanton. “The point was to remove the Taliban, not to take over Afghanistan and turn it into America.”
While their directive was clear, the plan to carry it out was anything but.
There were only vague whispers from the Department of Defense, according to Stanton. “For the moment, the plan was: There was no plan,” he writes.
With precious little time to gather essentials, one supply sergeant was sent to a store in Kentucky near Fort Campbell called Batteries Plus. He purchased every AA battery in the store.
For about a week in an isolation facility at Fort Campbell, the men were given the barest scraps of information. They studied Discovery Channel documentaries and old issues of National Geographic. The terrain maps of Afghanistan they were handed originated from the Soviet invasion, and some still had Russian scrawled on them. At this point, Afghanistan was barely even on the military’s radar.
ARRIVING in Afghanistan from K2 on a helicopter under cover of night, the team met with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the Afghan warlords they were to build a relationship with.
Their long-term goal was to train willing Afghan fighters during the bitter winter for a spring offensive. Cooperation from their leaders was essential.
Dostum and his fighters were part of what was known as the Northern Alliance, a united front against the Taliban that came together in 1996 when the aggressors took control of Kabul, the capital.
Dostum was not your average warlord. For one, he loved booze. And he was said to have an affinity for hookers.
When team leader Nelson presented Dostum with a gift of horse feed, Dostum was obviously offended.
“I don’t need food for my horses,” he said. “My men are hungry. They also need blankets.” Nelson offered another gift: a bottle of Russian vodka. “Very good,” Dostum said. “Excellent.”
Dostum would soon give the 5th Group its biggest surprise. Not 15 minutes after arriving in Afghanistan, Dostum demanded the Americans mount horses — not Jeeps or motorcycles — to travel to his mountain headquarters near Dehi.
“Who’s ridden before?” Nelson asked his team. Two men raised their hands. “At summer camp,” one said. “When we were kids.”
So, Nelson gave his team a quick horseback lesson.
“Listen, here’s how you make this thing go,” he said, heeling his steed in the ribs. He then coolly warned the group that if their horse took off running, and they had their feet jammed in the stirrups, it was better to shoot the animal in the head than be dragged across the rocky ground. A nasty death. And off they rode to Dehi.
From Dostum’s mountain lair, the 5th Group and Northern Alliance would begin plotting their attack on the Taliban.
DOSTUM’S methods often confused the men. Noticing a Taliban camp about three miles away, the warlord brazenly chose to radio them. “I am here with the Americans, and they have decided to kill you,” he said. “What do you think of that?”
Their plan was to take Mazar-iSharif, a stronghold of the Taliban, and the key to their downfall.
As they approached the city, in an area known as the Gap, Northern Alliance forces were stopped in their tracks by a Taliban rocket attack. In a harrowing moment, Nelson, on horseback, knew it was up to him to motivate the fighters. So, like the Civil War generals he so admired, Nelson charged ahead. The soldiers followed.
They were victorious in Mazar-iSharif and achieved in just two months — for $70 million — what the Pentagon had expected to take more than a year. The Taliban was routed, the Northern Alliance was in charge, and the US would send thousands of troops to aid with the transition. The hunt was on for Osama bin Laden, who would be killed by Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011. Today, there are about 11,000 US troops still in the country.
Most of the 5th Group returned home unscathed. One, Mike Spann, was killed by Taliban prisoners. Several were later deployed to Iraq and died in that conflict.
When viewed through the lens of World War II, or even Vietnam, the 5th Group’s journey is an unlikely tale of wartime heroism. There were no warships, tanks or trenches. Still, the team’s innovative scrappiness exemplified the American way.
“Landing in this Afghan general’s camp, thinking you’re about to have a long talk about what you’re going to do. And suddenly, within the first 10 minutes of your arrival, you’re forced to get on horseback and start the war,” said Stanton. “It’s that ability to say yes and figure it out.”