That is when CIA operative Mike Spann was killed, the first U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan.

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Spann joined the CIA in June 1999 after several years with the Marines.

CNN: CIA officer first U.S. combat death in Afghanistan

Mike Mullins who was Spann's commanding officer on Okinawa from 1994-95.

CNN: CIA officer first U.S. combat death in Afghanistan

During the uprising CIA officer Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann was killed.

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Johnny Spann said there was no special comfort in knowing that his son was the first American to give his life in the fight against terrorism.

CNN: CIA officer first U.S. combat death in Afghanistan

Spann, a former Marine, is credited with saving the lives of countless Alliance fighters and Afghan civilians by standing and firing as they ran for cover.

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"Mike Spann was an American hero ... a man who showed passion for his country and his agency through his selfless courage, " Tenet said in a statement.

CNN: CIA officer first U.S. combat death in Afghanistan

Spann's father blasted the news media for reporting his son's death before it had been confirmed by the government, saying that if his son were still alive at the time, such reports put his life in jeopardy.

CNN: CIA officer first U.S. combat death in Afghanistan

Lindh was captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance on November 25, 2001, and imprisoned in a compound in Mazar-e-Sharif, where he was questioned by CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann, who was killed in an uprising at the compound a short time later.

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But, you know, had he not been dead, and everybody getting on the news media and in the papers and saying Mike Spann was a CIA operative, and if those folks over there had been able to receive those transmissions, I feel like they would have shot him if they hadn't already shot him.

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