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 as of 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.
Death at Qala-i-Jangi Spann
was killed during an uprising at the
Qala-i-Jangi compound near
Mazar-i-Sharif in northern
Afghanistan. Earlier that day, he and David Tyson, a CIA case officer and
Uzbek-language specialist based in Tashkent, questioned
John Walker Lindh, an American citizen and Taliban member, and other prisoners. Around 400 Al Qaeda prisoners had surrendered on November 24 and been kept overnight in the cellar of the Pink House, in the southern half of the fort. Spann focused intently on Lindh after another prisoner identified him as an Irishman. Spann asked Lindh: "Do you know the people here you’re working with are terrorists and killed other Muslims? There were several hundred Muslims killed in the bombing in New York City. Is that what the Quran teaches? I don’t think so. Are you going to talk to us?” Lindh remained silent. Two Afghan doctors, interviewed by author
Toby Harnden, witnessed Spann's final moments. They saw the CIA officer, who was about five yards away from them, swing around and raise his
AKMS rifle to his shoulder as the prisoners revolted amid sounds of gunfire and grenade explosions. Prisoners were rushing out, straight at Spann. The doctors saw Spann shoot two or three of them with his Kalashnikov before the Qatari prisoner and others who had been sitting close to the Pink House stood up and jumped on Spann from behind, pushing him to the ground. Spann pulled out his Glock 19 pistol and fired one or two shots before he was overwhelmed, disappearing beneath a pile of prisoners desperately trying to seize his weapons. Tyson ran toward Spann after hearing his comrade shout: "Dave, Dave, Dave." Tyson then used his
Browning Hi-Power pistol to shoot dead four Al Qaeda prisoners on top of Spann. Kicking Spann and seeing blood on the ground, Tyson concluded Spann was dead. Tyson grabbed Spann's AKMS rifle and used it, and other weapons, to fight his way into the northern half of the fort, killing at least a dozen and possibly up to 40 Al Qaeda prisoners. Afghans recovered his body on November 28 as CIA officers looked on. After
Afghan Northern Alliance troops, backed by U.S. airstrikes, US Army
Special Forces and British
Special Boat Service members, eventually quelled the uprising. Some sources said that Spann fought with his
AK-47 until it ran out of ammunition, then drew his pistol until it, too, emptied, then resorted to hand-to-hand combat before finally being overcome. In a news report by
Time published shortly after the events, it was stated that Spann fought only with his pistol, killing three attackers before being overwhelmed by the more numerous prisoners.
Time reported shortly after the events: A military autopsy concluded that Spann died from two gunshot wounds to the head "resulting in severe, rapidly fatal injury to the brain." One was a contact wound, indicating a gun had been held to his temple and a bullet fired through his head, exiting on the left. The other wound was "intermediate range," meaning that the shot had been fired close enough to leave powder marks. The second bullet had entered the right side of his forehead and exited from the back. Spann's body was flown back to the U.S. via Germany, where the autopsy was carried out. It was flown from Ramstein on board a US government Boeing 757-200 jet normally assigned as Vice President Dick Cheney’s Air Force Two. The 757 was being used by
George Tenet, the CIA director, who had been in Islamabad meeting with President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan. Spann's casket was also accompanied by Alex Hernandez, deputy chief of Team Alpha, and the head of the CIA's Ground Branch.
Burial and memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. 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 was named in his honor. The Alabama legislature named a section of
Alabama Highway 129 the "Johnny Micheal Spann Highway" in his honor. ==Personal life==