“12 Strong” Team Leader discusses his post-9/11 mission

Audio By Carbonatix

In the immediate aftermath of September 11^th, some commentators questioned why the United States wasn’t doing more to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan. But something was being done. It was happening away from the cameras and out of sight of most viewers.

“While a lot of the pundits were sitting around on the news media wondering why something wasn’t [being] done, I assure there were things that were being done that didn’t necessarily need to be disclosed at that time.” So states Mark Nutsch, one of the first Special Forces leaders on the ground in Afghanistan, who recently spoke to us about his mission.

In the weeks after 9/11, Nutsch led his twelve-man team on a diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. The team’s goal was to work with the different ethnic groups on the ground and help build a coordinated effort to take down the Taliban, who were terrorizing local communities. Riding on horseback into hostile terrain, their story was told in several books and now it’s being told on movie screens nationwide.

Doug Stanton’s book Horse Soldiers, which tells the story of Nutsch’s team, has now been adapted into the new cinematic drama 12 Strong. Chris Hemsworth stars as the team leader.

In the feature’s opening moments, Hemsworth's character watches in horror as the events of 9/11 unfold on the television screen. After working and being deployed as the leader of a Special Forces team for years, he had just started a desk job in the military. Some might think this was a Hollywood exaggeration but in reality, this situation really did occur.

As Nutsch told me, his first day at a desk job was September 10^th 2011 and 9/11 changed his life. “In my community and with my team in particular, it was ‘Send me. Send us. We’re the team that’s trained and ready and want to have some role in the effort.”

He added, “We were honored and humbled to be one of the first teams picked from our unit to go on that incredible mission.”

The mission was a complicated one. After arriving in Afghanistan, the team met with General Dostum (Navid Negahban), a tribal leader who had been fighting in his country for years. Within hours, Nutsch and his team realized that they needed to travel on horseback.

Nutsch notes, “They [Dostum’s 300 fighters] were all moving on horseback… That gave them greater mobility than our enemy to move in that rugged terrain. You’re not restricted to the roads like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were at that time.” Although Nutsch had some training with horses, other members of his team had to learn how to ride on the spot.

The team’s main mission was to bring together rival ethnic groups in the hopes of building an alliance against the Taliban. These groups had a history of fighting against one another but ultimately worked together to take on the enemy. “I’m very proud that our team played a role in that with the CIA and other Special Forces teams,” Nutsch said, “We brought three different ethnic faction leaders together. They had been rivals.”

12 Strong captures that difficult diplomatic mission and their ensuing victories against the Taliban.

Early in the production, Nutsch visited the set and met with some of the cast and crew. He brought a piece of the twin towers with him, hoping to remind the production team what their mission was ultimately about. “I wanted them to remember [and] reflect what that day was like… [and] help them get them get into the mindset of the Special Forces team,” he said.

Although there are some fictional elements in the movie, Nutsch encourages everyone to go see the film. “I think it will give some insight [into] the incredible things that our special operations community did right after 9/11. All of the main elements and units and players are represented in this film.”

John Hanlon is our film and television critic. He can be followed on Twitter @johnhanlon.