The 'Legion of Brothers' that routed the Taliban

The documentary feature film "Legion of Brothers" tells the stories of the handful of US Special Forces soldiers who, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, went into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and within a matter of weeks overthrew the Taliban regime. In the public's mind, Special Forces are often confused with the "door kickers" of Special Operations Forces -- such as SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force -- who are the United States' elite counterterrorism operators. In fact, the primary mission of Special Forces, in particular the Army's Green Berets, who are profiled in the film, is to work "by, with and through" local forces on the ground to act as force multipliers. That means that Special Forces embed with local forces and work with them to achieve their common goals.

The Green Berets of US Special Forces 5th Group -- known as "the Legion" -- who led the anti-Taliban campaign represent a textbook case of a successful Special Forces campaign. Five weeks after the 9/11 attacks, a 12-man Green Beret team led by Capt. Mark Nutsch was dropped into Afghanistan where they attached themselves to the army of the Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum. Riding horses into battle -- in a scene that could have played out during the American Civil War -- Nutsch and his team helped lead Dostom's forces to victory against the Taliban forces in the north of Afghanistan. Together, they rode into the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on November 10 where they were greeted as liberators.

Meanwhile, in southern Afghanistan, Capt. Jason Amerine and his 12-man Green Beret team linked up with an obscure Afghan diplomat named Hamid Karzai. In mid-November 2001, as they moved toward the city of Kandahar, the Taliban's de facto capital in southern Afghanistan, Amerine's team called in airstrikes against advancing Taliban units and more or less obliterated a Taliban column of a thousand men that had been dispatched from Kandahar. It was the Taliban's final play to remain in power. The Taliban surrendered Kandahar on December 5 and the same day, Karzai was appointed to be the next leader of Afghanistan. Few saw then that the United States would still be fighting wars of various kinds a decade and a half later, not only in Afghanistan, but also in Iraq and Syria.

Special Forces continue to play a key role in these wars, in part, because there is no demand signal today from the American public to send large conventional armies into the greater Middle East to fight wars against ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban. This means American involvement in the wars in these countries must be conducted "by, with and through" the local forces on the ground, such as the Afghan army, Iraqi military and Syrian militias allied to the States. And that means a large role for US Special Forces, whose specialty is working with those local forces.

But this raises some serious questions about how much the American public is asking from its Special Forces, who are facing repeated deployments. In "Legion of Brothers," Scott Neil, a Green Beret who was part of a sniper team in Afghanistan in the months after 9/11, explains: "You used to go into a VFW and you had one guy who had one tour. You were like 'Oh, wow.' You hear one guy had two tours. You're like 'Oh, he's a little crazy.' Somebody had three tours -- they're out of their minds. And what you see now is people have five, seven, nine, 10 tours. And they're still going."

This not only puts pressure on Special Forces but also, of course, puts much strain on their families. As Nutsch's wife, Amy, a special needs teacher and mother of four, puts it: "I've had some trying times at home, but managed to get through it. And then I yell at him later, going, 'This is what I have to deal with'." There are no easy answers for how to reduce the pressures on the force and families in an era when there is a great demand for the skills that Special Forces bring to the battlefield.

Special Operations Command -- first under Adm. Eric Olson and then under Adm. Bill McRaven, the architect of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden -- put in place polices that emphasized more predictable deployments, allowing for more predictable blocks of time for servicemen to be with their families. They also started providing more support services for servicemen and their families.

Story from CNN

Task Force Dagger honored with memorial dedication

Story by Drew Brooks, from the Fayetteville Observer.

The first U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan were honored Thursday with the dedication of a memorial stone outside the Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg. 

The picture at right is of the SF Horse Soldier statute near Ground Zero in New York City. 

Task Force Dagger, composed of the 5th Special Forces Group, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and special tactics airmen from Air Forces Special Operations Command, entered Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Working with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the troops, never numbering more than 300 men, were able to "bring down a regime in less than a few months' work," Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland Jr. said.

Mulholland, the deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, was the keynote speaker at the dedication.  In 2001, Mulholland was commander of the 5th Special Forces Group and led Task Force Dagger.  He called Thursday's ceremony a "very important moment."  "It's a really big deal for us who had the honor and privilege to serve in this task force," he said.

Mulholland laid a wreath at USASOC's memorial wall before a moment of silence was held for fallen operators.  He related how, on Sept. 11, 2001, he was finishing his daily physical training when he heard about the attacks.  "We all knew we were going to war and we were going to war in Afghanistan," he said.

Mulholland spoke of the initial confusion and how members of "another government agency" flew to Fort Campbell, Ky., to provide intelligence and information on Afghanistan.

He credited the leader of the Air Force units paired with Mulholland's soldiers, recently retired Lt. Gen. Frank Kisner, for helping make a harmonious force.

He also spoke of the initial buildup for war.

Mulholland said his Green Berets were "not in good shape" before Afghanistan.  Special Forces was not high on the resource chart for the Army or special operations, he said.  The soldiers had old or poor equipment. "It was not a pretty picture," Mulholland said. "Decades of neglect became apparent.

"What we did have was extraordinary men," he said. "Those A-Teams were what made Task Force Dagger successful."

Brig. Gen. David Fox, who earlier in the day took command of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, was one of the battalion commanders who led troops in that initial push into Afghanistan.

Fox said Thursday's recognition was "a long time coming."

"We went into Afghanistan not completely unprepared, but unknowing," Fox said. "It was the beginning of things that we didn't really realize."

Fox was one of five people who helped unveil the stone. Each participated in some part of Task Force Dagger, Mulholland said.

Fox represented the Green Berets. Retired Col. John Buss was an Army aviator. Retired Air Force Col. Patrick Pihana was a combat controller. Retired Col. Frank Hudson was Mulholland's deputy commanding officer and led the remaining elements of the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell. And Mulholland's wife, Miriam, represented the spouses left behind who had to manage conflict and crisis.

The memorial stone, located in the Meadows Field Memorial Plaza, is decorated with the dates of Task Force Dagger, October 2001 to April 2002, a map of Afghanistan and the name of the task force.

Three of the aircraft used in support of the task force are to the right - Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters and an AC-130 gun ship.

To the left of Afghanistan is the silhouette of the Twin Towers and an image of one of the iconic "Horse Soldiers," who were among the first into Afghanistan.

Book Review: Horse Soldiers - by Doug Stanton

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
Reviewed by: Dr. Alfred Paddock, Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), Madison, Ala.


Drawing on approximately 100 interviews, as well as on written sources, the author tells the story of this operation in a vivid manner. He explains well the precise coordination required with Air Force aircraft in order to target the Taliban with bombs and missiles. Without that coordination, the Northern Alliance could not have prevailed. The desperate battle at the Qala-i-Janghi fortress, where 600 Taliban soldiers escaped and broke into an extensive cache of weaponry, is particularly well-described.


To sum up: Horse Soldiers is a good, gripping story about the accomplishments of a small force of courageous SF, CIA and Air Force personnel operating under incredibly demanding circumstances. It reads like a novel, which, indeed, contributes to its shortcomings. Much of the dialogue in the book could well be adopted for a movie screenplay — which is sure to come. But this “creative nonfiction,” in addition to its historical inaccuracies, will dissuade most serious writers from citing it as a reference.


For full book review go to: http://www.soc.mil/swcs/swmag/Page_BookReviews.htm