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This article is part of a Fox News Digital series examining the impact of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan a year ago this week.
The daughter of the first American killed in action in Afghanistan told Fox News Digital that he is remembered not as a “news headline” but as the earliest volunteer and “pioneer who implemented his ideas.” Said I want He had to’ there after 9/11.
Alison Spann has spoken out about her father, Johnny “Mike” Spann, as military families across America prepare to mark the first anniversary of America’s withdrawal from turbulent Afghanistan.
During the November 2001 Afghan prison riot, CIA officer Mike Spann died shortly after being interrogated. John Walker Lindthe captured Islamist militants were dubbed “America’s Taliban” for joining and supporting terrorist organizations in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
“I think my father got a lot of attention because he was the first American to be killed after 9/11. To me, I’ll never know Mike Spann as an adult. You get to know him through the lens of a 9 year old kid,” Alison Spann said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
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“I’ve heard a lot of stories about him from his friends, his co-workers, and my family, but I don’t want him to be remembered as a news headline: ‘Mike Spang, the first victim, or Mike Spann. The first time a CIA’s officer was killed was after 9/11,” Spann continued. “I think what I want people to remember is who he was.”
Spann says her father describes herself as an “action person” and her time in Afghanistan reflects that.
“When the United States was under attack, he was the first to volunteer and go to Afghanistan and do what he thought he had to do,” she said. “And I think there’s something to be admired about people who go spontaneously, selflessly, and do things like that first when things get tough, when it comes down to it.”
Spann, who now works as a newscaster and reporter for WLOX in Mississippi, said it was “heartbreaking” to see what life in Afghanistan is back to after a year of war. says. Taliban regained power.
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“Even today, I still find it incredible that things ended like this in Afghanistan. I had no idea it was going on.This kind of chaos was really heartbreaking,” she told Fox News Digital.
“Afghanistan still has allies…they risked their lives and the safety of their families’ lives to help us while we worked in Afghanistan,” Span said. said. “And it’s really heartbreaking to see that we’ve essentially abandoned them. I can’t imagine what that makes us look like on the world stage.”
Supan also expressed concern about the restrictions the Taliban impose on women. She says her lost freedom resonates more with her after visiting the war-torn country soon after her father’s death in 2002.
“At first I didn’t even want to go. It was terrifying because I could imagine going to a country full of people who not only killed my father but also committed the 9/11 attacks,” she said. “But what I experienced there was completely different.”
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“I experienced very humble and grateful people and had the opportunity to visit a women’s shelter and an orphanage, which is filled with children who have lost their parents at the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It was,” Span told Fox News. Digital. “I went to women’s shelters and was able to hear stories of how these women lost their hands for the simple act of going to the grocery store or market without a man in their family. They were so grateful. They just held on.
Suppan said the trip “completely changed my thinking about Afghanistan, and looking back at me at nine years old, seeing the children who lost everything at the hands of the Taliban, listening to these women, ‘Things are back to normal’ is ‘heartbreak’.