Remembering Johnny “Mike” Spann, 22 Years After He Became The First American Casualty Inside Afghanistan after 9/11

Remembering Johnny “Mike” Spann, 22 Years After He Became The First American Casualty Inside Afghanistan after 9/11

Twenty-two years ago today, Johnny Micheal (“Mike”) Spann, a CIA operations officer with Alpha Team, became the first American killed inside Afghanistan after 9/11.

Spann was killed during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi Fortress, a prisoner uprising at the ancient fortress where John Walker Lindh (the “American Taliban”) was held and interrogated by Spann.

[Mike Spann interviewing John Walker Lindh, Afghanistan, 2001]

Hearing the news of Osama bin Laden’s death brought forward many emotions and memories.

One of those memories for me was the story of Johnny “Mike” Spann, from Winfield, Alabama, the first American killed in the Afghanistan war, on November 25, 2001.

Spann was a CIA operative, one of a small number of Americans who landed in Afghanistan, helped coordinate local forces hostile to the Taliban, and directed bombing and other military action.

The story of this small band of men has been told, but not told enough.

Spann was killed during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi when Taliban prisoners gained access to weapons and attacked.

Spann was killed during that uprising (see video).  One of the prisoners was the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lyndh, who Spann interrogated shortly before Spann’s death.

Spann’s wife Shannon also worked for the CIA.  In addition to his wife, Spann left behind two daughters and an infant son.

Each year since then we remember him, and try to bring to light any new information and videos that arose or became available in the prior year. Scroll through our Johnny “Mike” Spann Tag from the earliest post forward for an enormous amount of detail.

This year continued to bring new information and a lot new videos.

In May, Spann’s widow Shannon wrote an article on Memorial Day for AARP magazine. Here is an excerpt from My Husband’s Heroic Legacy and the True Meaning of Sacrifice:

For my family, the turmoil and tragedy were more direct than for most — Mike was one of the first eight Americans sent behind enemy lines in Afghanistan and on Nov. 25, 2001, he became America’s first casualty on the battlefield in a new war that would last for 20 years.

He died fighting, shooting back at his al-Qaeda attackers at close quarters during a prisoner uprising at Qala-i-Jangi before he was overwhelmed. We were both 32.

Less than a month after Mike was killed, I found myself back at Arlington for Mike’s funeral, numbed by grief and holding a 5-month-old Jake. I hardly remember delivering a eulogy, which was filmed live on national television. “Mike is a hero not for the way that he died,” I said, “but rather because of the way he lived.”

He was buried in Section 34 of the cemetery, which is flanked by Grant Drive.

Mike was given a white marble headstone. In the years since, I’ve tried to think of what Martin Luther King Jr. said about the “arc of the moral universe” as a way to make some sense of Mike’s death.

When the loss is recent and up close and personal, it’s harder to believe in that arc. But in the years since 2001, when I’ve stood in Arlington among all the headstones stretching out as far as one can see, I’ve felt that as precious as Mike’s one headstone is to me, it’s even more precious because it’s part of the whole.

This year, Memorial Day is more difficult than before because of the moral injury suffered by the veteran community due to the harm that’s coming to our allies and partners in Afghanistan. On previous Memorial Days, I would mourn but I had a greater ability than I do now to say the sacrifice was worth the cost.

That phrase in his eulogy about the way Mike lived his life was central to the reason I, along with several of Mike’s comrades, set up a nonprofit charity to assist the approximately 30 families of the men who fought alongside the CIA and Green Berets in northern Afghanistan immediately after 9/11.

We called it Badger Six, a call sign used by members of Mike’s team in 2001. Mike wasn’t able to continue living his life, so we who are left are living our lives in his way through Badger Six.

I found two new YouTube “shorts” – unfortunately they don’t size properly in WordPress (unlike regular YouTube Videos) so here are hyperlinked images (click to go to the video). This video is an interview with Shannon:

This ‘short’ explains the efforts to rescue Spann during the battle;

Toby Harnden, whose book about Spann – First Casualty – is a must read, posted on Instagram last Memorial Day:

On Memorial Day 2001, Mike Spann, a CIA paramilitary who’d been a @USMC officer, took his pregnant wife Shannon, also CIA, and two daughters to Arlington National Cemetery. On December 10 that year, he was buried there in Section 34. This is his grave this week.

#MemorialDay2022 #MemorialDay #RememberMikeSpann

First Casualty page 68:

Mike loved American military history, particularly the Civil War, and had told Alison that Ulysses S. Grant, the Union general and later US president, was one of his heroes. On Memorial Day of that year, with Shannon nearly nine months pregnant, they had taken the girls by Metro to visit Arlington National Cemetery. It was a sacred place to Mike, and a day to teach his children the importance of respect for America’s fallen.

Page 296:

A horse-drawn caisson, accompanied by a Marine honor guard in dress blues and the sound of clopping hooves and a snare drum, carried Mike Spann’s casket through Arlington National Cemetery. It was 1:15 p.m. on December 10, the eve of the three-month anniversary of 9/11. Amid the leafless trees and white marble headstones stretching into the distance, the caisson halted before grave number 2359 in Section 34. Mike had visited the cemetery with Shannon and his daughters less than seven months earlier. It was the fitting place, Shannon had decided, for her husband to be laid to rest.

Remember Mike Spann, killed in action 22 years ago today during an Al-Qaeda prisoner revolt at Qala-i Jangi. Mike went down fighting, engaging the enemy at close quarters with his AKMS & Glock 17. He is represented by the 79th star on @CIA memorial wall, which now bears 140 stars pic.twitter.com/xJQKO82ape

— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) November 25, 2023

There were videos. Lots of videos posted in the past year. Some of them contain information previously available. This video from NBC News summarizes the story through an interview with Spann’s teammate, David Tyson.

This video is a fairly long detailed accont of the Battle of Qala-I-Jangi Fortress, well worth the watch if you are not already familiar.

Finally, the Mike Spann Invitational was run this year again.

Nothing that happened in Afghanistan in the past two decades diminishes his sacrifice.

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