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December 11, 2001
ARLINGTON, Va. -- CIA officer Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann, the only American to die at the hands of the enemy in Afghanistan, was buried among the ranks of the fallen Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.
Spann was remembered as a hero as he was interred with crisp precision and full military honors by the Marine Corps, where he was a captain of artillery before he joined the CIA.
"From his earliest days . . . he worked to do what was right," CIA director George J. Tenet told mourners, including many of Spann's fellow intelligence officers. "Mike understood it's not enough simply to dream of a better, safer world. He understood it has to be built."
Spann's wife, Shannon, also a CIA employee, carried their infant son wrapped in a white blanket against the chilly day. She sat before her husband's coffin, which was borne by six Marines and draped in an American flag. Spann's two young daughters, parents and other family members stood nearby.
"I want to tell you my husband is a hero," Shannon Spann said. "Mike is a hero not because of the way he died, but because of the way he lived."
Seven Marines fired three volleys each from their rifles. Another Marine played taps, and an officer gave Spann's flag to his wife. The ceremony ended as members of Spann's family silently knelt before the coffin.
Spann's white grave marker will stand among the tens of thousands buried at Arlington. Not far from Spann's grave is Gen. John Pershing, who led U.S. troops in World War I.
Other war dead from Afghanistan were memorialized Monday at Fort Campbell, Ky. Master Sgt. Jefferson "Donnie" Davis, 39, of Watauga, Tenn.; Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of Frazier Park, Calif.; and Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, of Cheshire, Mass., all Green Berets, were killed when a U.S. bomb missed its target near Kandahar.
"Children are able to laugh, play and sing because of what they did," Lt. Col. Frank Hudson told a crowd of mourners that overflowed Memorial Chapel.
Rioting prisoners shot and killed Spann at the Taliban prison uprising at Mazar-e-Sharif on Nov. 25. He had been interviewing Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, including American John Walker, after their surrender of the nearby city of Kunduz.
The length of Spann's military service did not qualify him for burial at Arlington. At his family's request, President Bush signed a waiver allowing him to be buried there, a White House spokesman said. Of the 260,000 people buried at Arlington, only a few hundred were buried there after receiving a waiver.