Combat Camera: Remembering Mike Spann, First U.S. Casualty of War in Afghanistan

U.S. Soldiers based at Forward Operating Base Mike Spann look at a memorial set up in his honor on the grounds of the Kala-Jangi fortress. Spann was killed near this spot on November 25, 2001 by rioting Taliban prisoners, making him the first American casualty of the war in Afghanistan. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

A destroyed shipping container with thousands of rusting Soviet-era weapons remains on the grounds of the Kala-Jangi fortress after the battle with Taliban prisoners who revolted there. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

Hundreds of rusting Soviet-era weapons magazines remains on the grounds of the Kala-Jangi fortress, six years after the battle with Taliban prisoners who revolted there. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

U.S. Soldiers based at Forward Operating Base Mike Spann walk past the rusted weapons that still lay on the grounds of the Kala-Jangi fortress, six years after the November 25, 2001 riot by Taliban prisoners. Soldiers and journalists regularly visit the site and the memorial to Mike Spann, the first American casualty of the war in Afghanistan. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

A sign outside the gate of the partially restored 19th century Kala-Jangi fortress, which was formerly used by the Taliban as a base, and by the Northern Alliance as a headquarters and ammunition depot. Taliban prisoners rioted at Kala-Jangi on November 25, 2001 and several hundred were killed in the ensuing battle. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

A destroyed shipping container remains on the grounds of the Kala-Jangi fortress as a testimony of the fierce battle with Taliban prisoners who revolted there on November 25, 2001. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

A soldier from the Afghan National Army looks at the basement where 86 Taliban prisoners ended their revolt at the Kala-Jangi fortress. Taliban prisoners rioted at the fort on November 25, 2001, and hundreds were killed in the week-long battle that followed. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

A soldier from the Afghan National Army looks at the basement where 86 Taliban prisoners ended their revolt at the Kala-Jangi fortress. Taliban prisoners rioted at the fort on November 25, 2001, and hundreds were killed in the week-long battle that followed. Photographer: Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Navy Visual News Service.

Dispatches from the Front:

MAZAR-e-SHARIF, Afghanistan; Nov. 25, 2007 -- Destroyed vehicles and rusting weapons still lay in the grass within the 100 year-old fortress, evidence of a week-long fight. It was six years ago, but the battle at Kala-Jangi prison seems much more recent.

Initially, the 19th century fort had been a Taliban base, but in November of 2001, it was being used as a headquarters and ammunition depot by General Abdul Rashid Dostrum of the Afghan Northern Alliance. After talks with the coalition forces, it was decided that the Taliban prisoners who had surrendered would be held there.

Johnny “Mike” Spann, a 32 year-old former Marine captain, was working for the CIA when he died. Spann and his partner Dave Tyson were questioning Taliban prisoners at Kala-Jangi on Nov. 25, 2001 when an uprising broke out. The prisoners overpowered nearly 20 Afghan guards and killed Spann. Tyson was able to escape and call for help.

In the ensuing battle, hundreds of Taliban fighters were killed by numerous airstrikes, direct fire from tanks and heavy machine gun fire from circling gunships. After a week, their fierce resistance was finally quelled. Only 86 surrendered.

At the request of Spann’s family, President Bush allowed him to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He also received a star on the wall at CIA headquarters, and was posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star and the Exceptional Service Medallion.

Forward Operating Base Mike Spann near Mazar-e-Sharif was named in his honor and
coalition soldiers from there regularly visit the site. One of them is Army First Sgt. Andrew Culbreth, who calls it, “An impressive fortress that was the starting point of the U.S. involvement in the fight for freedom in Afghanistan."

Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Lewis Nunemaker has also been there, and has seen the memorial that overlooks the spot where American Special Forces recovered Spann’s body.

He said, "Being [based] here on Camp Spann...Kala-Jangi is hallowed ground."

The place is quiet now. Although it has been partially restored, the pock-marked walls still stand in mute testimony of the fight where America’s first casualty in Afghanistan fell. Mike Spann’s commitment continues with every U.S. service man and woman who have come to Afghanistan. He may have been the first, but he was not the last American to pay the ultimate price for both Afghan and American freedom.

(Story by Petty Officer 1st Class David Votroubek, Combined Security Transition Command –Afghanistan Public Affairs Office.)

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