Первый американец, погибший в Афганистане: история Майка Спанна.

Central Intelligence Agency officer

Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann (March 1, 1969 – November 25, 2001) was an American paramilitary officer in the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division. Spann was the first American killed in combat during the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He died at the Qala i Jangi fortress during an al Qaeda prisoner uprising.

Johnny Micheal Spann was from the small town of Winfield, Alabama, the son of real estate agent Johnny Spann and his wife Gail. His name was spelled Micheal because of his mother's Irish ancestry. Spann graduated in 1987 from Winfield City High School, where he played football. At 17, he earned his private pilot license and later became a certified rescue diver and parachutist.

In December 1991, while attending Auburn University, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve. After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement in 1992, Spann attended the Marines' Officer Candidates School at Quantico, Virginia. He had originally wanted to go into aviation, but became a field artillery officer and eventually served with the 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. He specialized in close air support. In 1997, he was second in command for UNITAS, a joint exercise expedition in Latin America and Africa. He served six years with the United States Marine Corps and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan and at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, eventually achieving the rank of Captain.

Spann joined the CIA in June 1999 and trained at The Farm, where he met his future wife Shannon Verleur (née Joy) and was known as "Silent Mike". On completion of training, he was assigned to Ground Branch of the CIA's Special Activities Division. In early 2001, he was on a training course with a fellow former Marine called Brian (who in 2021 was head of the CIA's Special Activities center) and discussed the Al Qaeda threat and the USS Cole, which had been bombed in October 2000. "What would we be doing right now as a country if the Cole had snapped in half and gone to the bottom of the Gulf of Aden?" Spann asked Brian. "Would we be on a training course?" Later in 2001, Spann undertook temporary duty in Uzbekistan, Spann returned from the Balkans on September 8, 2001 On October 17, 2001, Spann was one of the eight members of the CIA's Team Alpha who were inserted into the Darya Suf Valley, south of Mazar i Sharif. Team Alpha was flown into Afghanistan in two Black Hawk helicopters from the Karshi Khanabad air base in Uzbekistan. The eight were the first Americans behind enemy lines after 9/11; the CIA's Jawbreaker team had arrived on September 26, but were located in terrain controlled by the Northern Alliance in the Panjshir Valley. Three days later, they were joined by 12 Green Berets from ODA 595. On October 27, Spann led a three man team to Yakawlang, sixty miles west of Bamiyan, to prepare the way for the CIA’s Team Delta and ODA 553. CIA medic Mark Rausenberger and Captain Justin Sapp, a Green Beret, were under his command. Spann insisted that the Landing Zone at Yakawlang be named after his baby son, despite opposition from CIA headquarters. "There are no rules here,” he said. "We’re making the decisions and it’s going to be called LZ Jake." Spann's three man team rejoined Team Alpha just before the fall of Mazar i Sharif on November 9.

Spann was buried in Section 34 of Arlington National Cemetery on December 10, 2001. His widow Shannon Spann delivered the eulogy, saying: "I want to tell you that my husband is a hero. But Mike is a hero not because of the way that he died, but rather because of the way that he lived. Mike was prepared to give his life in Afghanistan, because he already gave his life every day to us at home.” Spann was memorialized with the 79th star on the CIA Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia that commemorates individuals who died in the line of duty. Spann was posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star and the Exceptional Service Medallion. Because the Intelligence Star is considered the equivalent of the U. S. military's Silver Star, Spann was approved for burial in Arlington National Cemetery. A memorial to Mike Spann was established at Qala i Jangi in December 2002. A forward operating base is named in his honor. The Alabama legislature named a section of Alabama Highway 129 the "Johnny Micheal Spann Highway" in his honor.

Spann lived in Manassas Park, Virginia, and was survived by his wife, Shannon Joy, also a CIA officer, and three children, Alison, Emily, and Jake. His ex wife, Kathryn Ann Webb, mother of two of his children, Alison and Emily, died of cancer five weeks after Spann's death. Shannon Spann later married fellow CIA officer Thys Debruyn Alison Spann became a journalist and in 2021 was a news anchor in Biloxi, Mississippi. Emily Spann graduated from her father’s alma mater, Auburn. Jake Spann entered New York University.