Saturday, November 26, 2011
Mike Spann
Current and former members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) this week commemorated the 10th anniversary of Johnny Micheal Spann’s death in Afghanistan. Spann was the first American casualty of the United States’ war-on-terror campaign that was launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Spann, 32, was a CIA paramilitary officer who was among the first “spooks” to go into Afghanistan after al-Qaeda operatives hijacked commercial airliners to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
A native of Winfield, Alabama, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from college, serving as an artillery officer. He joined the clandestine service of the CIA in 1999.
Spann was killed while interrogating prisoners (including American John Walker Lindh) at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif, when a violent uprising broke out at the prison on November 25, 2001. Spann was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on December 10, 2001.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Intel Community Marks a Decade Since the Death of Mike Spann, First CIA Officer Killed in Afghanistan (by Greg Miller, Washington Post)
Mike Spann, An Inspiration (CIA Officers Memorial Foundation)
Mike Spann Biography (honormikespann.org) (pdf)
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