I came across Mike Spann's story while reading Eric Blehm's excellent book The Only Thing Worth Dying For. In the book, Blehm mentions Mike, who was serving in Northern Afghanistan as a Special Activities Division officer with the CIA in 2001. Mike is recognized as the first American citizen to be killed in combat during the US invasion of Afghanistan. Mike's story touched me. As soon as I read about him I knew I wanted to write this blog post. Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann was a true American patriot and hero. He served his country, first as a Marine and then as a CIA agent. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and for a brighter future. He deserves to be remembered. In Mike's honor, and in honor of his family, here is my post.

Early life

Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann, was born on March 1st, 1969, in Winfield, Alabama. On the Thad Forester Podcast about Mike, his father,Johnny Spann, describes him as being patriotic from a very young age. He adds that as a boy, Mike was passionate about history. He had posters of the Marine Corps all over his room. Mike's family moved frequently during his childhood. Every time he had a new room, he would redecorate it with the same posters. Mike's biggest dream was to become a military aviator. At age 16, he began flying lessons in Fayette, Alabama, under the guidance of a retired Air Force pilot. By age 17 he obtained his pilot's license. According to his father: "Unfortunately Mike's eyes kept him from getting into any other pilot training." So just like that, Mike's dream of flying for the military was made impossible.

Mike was also an athlete; he played football on his High School team at Winfield City High School. He was also a certified diver and parachutist.

Mike's military career

When it was time to go to college, Mike decided to go to Auburn University. This decision surprised his family, since none of them had ever gone there. But being a supportive family, they encouraged Mike to pursue his goal. He matriculated in the fall of 1987, majoring in Criminal Justice. While attending the university, Mike called his father and expressed his desire to join the Marine Corps. Johnny mentioned the idea to his retired military friends and they all said the same thing: tell Mike to finish college, and then go in as an officer. But Mike joined the Marine Reserves anyway. In the spring of 1992, he obtained his Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement. Also that year, Mike got married and had his first child, Alison. After graduation, he went to Officer Candidates School (OCS) and became a field artillery officer.

Mike with his three children, October 8th, 2001.

7 years into his military service, Mike, now a Captain, called his father to tell him he was ready to make a career change. His father asked him why he would want to retire from the Marines, especially now that he had two children and was only several months away from being promoted to Major. Mike explained that he'd already deployed to over 30 countries and feared he would soon get an office job, where he wouldn't deploy into the field anymore. He also added that he felt he hadn't left his mark or done anything to really speak of. So, again, his family fully supported Mike's decision to retire from the Marine Corps.

Mike applied to the FBI, CIA and US Marshals. He was ultimately hired by the CIA. There, he trained six months in "The Farm", and, on Saturday October 8th, 2001, he deployed to Pakistan.

Several weeks after the attacks of 9/11, Mike became part of one of the first teams to drop into hostile territory in Afghanistan. His team's goal was to link up with the warlords in the north of Afghanistan (those who were opposed to the Taliban forces), and train Afghans to become what is called a "guerilla fighting group": civilians trained by a military force to act as a professional fighting force.

Mike's death

On November 25th, 2001, Mike went to Qala-i-Jangi prisoner of war camp to interrogate captured Taliban fighters who'd surrendered to the Northern Alliance. Two hours into the interrogations, several of the prisoners revolted, overwhelming the Northern Alliance prison guards. With Mike lost in the chaos, his CIA teammate Dave "Dawson" Tyson escaped to to the northern part of the prison, where he locked himself into a room with a German News team. From that room, Tyson was able to call for US reinforcements. Within several hours, Green Berets, Delta Force, Navy SEALs, CIA agents and British Special Boat Service soldiers arrived. Two days later, the battle ended.
Mike was found dead. The German News team, who had witnessed Mike's death, made the following report:

"Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban. They massed around him. 'Why are you here?' Spann asked one. 'To kill you,' came the reply as the man lunged at Spann's neck. Spann drew his pistol and shot the man dead. Dave (Tyson) shot another, then grabbed an AK-47 from an Alliance guard and opened fire. The Taliban fighters launched themselves at Spann, scrabbling at his flesh with their hands, kicking and beating him. Spann killed seven more with his pistol before he disappeared under the crush.
The only reason that Tyson and several others were able to live was because Mike stood his position and fought off the prisoners while enabling them the time to run to safety."

Mike was posthumously awarded the CIA Intelligence Star. He was officially recognized as the first American casualty of the US Invasion of Afghanistan.

Mike Spann rests at Section 34, Site 2359 at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
Photo credit: CNN

Resources

You can order the book here.
Websites: Wikipedia.com (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Micheal_Spann)
Youtube.com (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D5buaNOYHQ)
Ancestry.com (https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8750&h=2909211&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=jff500&_phstart=successSource)