RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It can be hard to remember back to the first days of the Afghan war now that it's entering its 17th year. A new movie about the early moments of the war, when victory seemed possible, is out today. It is called "12 Strong." It's the story of the dozen Green Berets dropped into Afghanistan barely a month after 9/11.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "12 STRONG")
CHRIS HEMSWORTH: (As Captain Mitch Nelson) Chances are we aren't all going to make it out of this one.
MARTIN: NPR's Greg Myre spoke with the actual soldiers who made it out.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: When Army Capt. Mark Nutsch and his men jumped off their helicopter into the swirling dust of northern Afghanistan, their Afghan partner informed them they would be battling the Taliban on horseback.
MARK NUTSCH: In that situation, they're certainly not going to give you their very best horses.
MYRE: Fortunately for Nutsch, this wasn't his first rodeo, literally. He's from Kansas, grew up on horses and, yes, competing in rodeos. Then there's Chief Warrant Officer Bob Pennington, an inexperienced rider weighing in at 225, plus 50 pounds of gear, all atop a small cranky horse.
BOB PENNINGTON: Oh, my god. I crushed him. I mean, I absolutely crushed him. He was so aggravated with me. He reached back several times to try to bite my leg - he did once - and, basically, trying to pull me off.
MYRE: This early fighting, just a month after 9/11, was unconventional warfare in the extreme. A few tiny units - altogether just a couple hundred American troops and CIA operatives - linked up with Afghan rebels and coordinated with U.S. airpower to take on the Taliban. Nutsch explains.
NUTSCH: You had, basically, 19th century warfare horseback mixed with 20th century weaponry - AK-47 and rocket launchers - with our 21st century technology - global positioning devices and satellite radios. And so we just had to figure out how to blend all that together.
MYRE: "Horse Soldiers," a 2009 book by author Doug Stanton, is the basis for the movie. Next to where the World Trade Center towers once stood in New York there's now a statue of a soldier on horseback, a tribute to these fighters. And Nutsch can revel in his big screen portrayal by a chiseled Chris Hemsworth, star of the Thor movies.
NUTSCH: My kids think it's quite humorous that Chris Hemsworth is portraying me in this film.
MYRE: All this makes for a stirring patriotic movie as long as you conveniently end it in 2001 and don't dwell on the grinding years of warfare that have followed. Nutsch and Pennington are helping promote the Warner Brothers film which focuses entirely on the early success against the Taliban. They say the filmmakers got the spirit right, but it is Hollywood. In the movie, Pennington is wounded for dramatic effect. In real life, he wasn't injured. Though, he still suffers back pain from all the horse riding. He vividly remembers the adrenaline rush of that first charge into Afghanistan.
PENNINGTON: We looked at this mission and thought this is the Super Bowl. This is the World Series, the national championship. Man, we can't wait to get in there. And we looked at it as, hey, we could be here for three to five months, three to five years, who knows?
MYRE: That was more than 16 years ago. Did he ever think the U.S. would still be fighting in Afghanistan today?
PENNINGTON: No, no, not at all - not this long. We never thought that we would be bogged down for this long a period, to be honest with you.
MYRE: Pennington and Nutsch are both retired from the military. But they're still working together preparing to launch a distillery this spring in St. Petersburg, Fla. The featured products will include Horse Soldier bourbon and T-shirts that read, make whiskey, not war. Greg Myre, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IT GOES ON")
ZAC BROWN: (Singing) It goes on.