Welcome

        Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, a 12-man team of U.S. Army Green Berets inserted deep in northern Afghanistan to aid local partisans in their unconventional war against the Taliban. Working with officers from the CIA, the Special Forces soldiers helped raise an army of some five thousand Afghans, uniting three different ethnic factions in a campaign across some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. Over a course of two months, the Green Berets advised Afghan commanders and directed a massive air campaign to rout the Taliban from power. It was the most successful unconventional warfare campaign in modern history.

     Officially designated “Operation Detachment Alpha 595 (ODA 595),” the Americans were dubbed “The Horse Soldiers” by Western media reporting on their triumphs. The team’s exploits have been portrayed in the Hollywood movie 12 Strong, the Emmy nominated documentary Legion of Brothers, and various books and monographs, including The Last Warlord, The Horse Soldiers and Mazar-e Sharif: The First Victory of the 21st Century Against Terrorism. A monument to their honor, “America’s Response Monument,” was erected at Ground Zero in New York City, where it is viewed by thousands daily.

     SWORDS OF LIGHTNING is their story, told from their point of view for the first time, with never-before revealed details and insights of the campaign, their struggles, and how close they came to failure and death.