A powerful new film about the first U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks opened Friday, and there's an Atlanta connection to "12 Strong."
"It is amazing that we livedthrough that," Bob Pennington told 11Alive's Jennifer Leslie.
Pennington, who now lives in Atlanta, is one of the real-life heroes who inspired the film.
He's played by Michael Shannon, who has a pseudonym in the film, which follows 12 soldiers as they work with Afghan allies to take down the Taliban and put Al Quaeda on the run.
"As hard as that mission was, as difficult as it was, the many obstacles in our way, through all that, through the grace of God, we all lived," Pennington added. "We all made it out of there."
Their mission was considered the most important mission in the free world when America's war on terror started.
"We wanted our command to pick our team, to send us, we're the ones to go, we can do this," said Mark Nutsch, who was chosen to lead a team of special forces operatives as part of Task Force Dagger. "They had to send someone in to figure things out on the ground."
Nutsch's name isn't used in the film, either.
Instead, the star who plays him, Chris Hemsworth, goes by a pseudonym, since Nutsch was still active duty and overseas when "Horse Soldiers" by Doug Stanton was written. It's the book behind the movie.
Nutsch and Pennington want people to see the film, and they're writing their own book about their historic mission.
