Widow and father of first American killed in Afghanistan in 2001 says US's chaotic withdrawal is 'shameful': 'It makes me sick to my stomach when I see it'

Mike Spann, 32, felt compelled to join the global war on terrorism after attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He flew Afghanistan to support the American military soon after

The father and widow of the first American soldier to be killed in Afghanistan have slammed the chaotic US withdrawal as 'shameful'.

Johnny Spann said as he watched America's withdrawal from Afghanistan unfold on TV, with people desperately clinging to departing jets as they tried to escape the Taliban takeover a sense of nausea swept over him.

The sight of Afghans falling from the plane to their deaths reminded him of those who plunged off the World Trade Center after planes crashed into the towers September 11, 2001.

The irony wasn't lost on Spann, whose son, Mike Spann, felt obliged to serve his country in Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

The 32-year-old CIA paramilitary officer was killed in the war torn country November 25, 2001, during a prisoner uprising at the fortress where he was questioning extreme terrorists. The Winfield, Alabama native was the first of 2,448 American services members to be killed in American combat.

In one of his last phone calls home to check on his children, he told his father he was hopeful they would gather information to locate the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, his father recalled.

In an interview on Fox News, Shannon Spann, widow of Mike Spann, expressed disdain for Biden's actions. 

'I'm deeply disappointed in President Biden's defiant stance in his address to the nation,' Spann told Fox News. 'In times of conflict, excellent leaders keep people bigger than the problem.

'We utterly failed at keeping people bigger than the problem.' 

Spann, a 32-year-old CIA paramilitary officer, was killed in the war torn country November 25, 2001, during a prisoner uprising at the fortress where he was questioning extreme terrorists. The Winfield, Alabama native was the first of 2,448 American services members to be killed in American combat 

Shannon Spann, widow of Mike Spann, says the Biden administration failed at keeping Afghan women and children safe from the Taliban takeover

Spann's father said he was disgusted by images of America's chaotic withdrawal Monday showing people, desperate to escape the Taliban takeover, clinging to the side of a departing U.S. military jet. 'It makes me sick to my stomach when I see it. It´s disheartening. It's shameful, I think. I think it´s shameful that we would do this,' Johnny Spann said

Spann's father said he was disgusted by images of America´s chaotic withdrawal Monday showing people, desperate to escape the Taliban takeover, clinging to the side of a departing U.S. military jet.

'It makes me sick to my stomach when I see it. It´s disheartening. It´s shameful, I think. I think it´s shameful that we would do this,' Johnny Spann said.  

President Joe Biden  addressed the international disaster Monday, telling the public who stood behind his decision to pull troops from the Middle Eastern country as the Taliban seized caches of powerful U.S. weapons meant for the Afghan army.

Johnny Spann had just dropped off his granddaughter in Birmingham when he had to pull over and look at the images on his cellphone after hearing them described.

Spann said he is not opposed to Americans leaving Afghanistan but disagrees with the timing and how it was done. With the Taliban takeover, his mind goes immediately to the Afghans who helped his son and other Americans.

'They are going to die. They are going to kill them. And how can someone stomach that when we know we made them promises? There is no telling how many people we would have lost if those people hadn´t helped us,' he said.

Despite the Taliban taking a softer tone, Shannon Spann says she doesn't buy its promise to maintain the rights of women and girls

Shannon Spann, wife of CIA officer Johnny Michael 'Mike' Spann, follows her husband's casket to the grave site, holding her 6-month old son Jake, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington

Shannon Spann said she doesn't believe the Taliban's promise of a peaceful takeover, and added she's concerned about how children and women will be the Taliban's takeover of the troubled country.

'You don't have to look further than the airport in Kabul to see that local Afghans don't believe the Taliban' story of 'we're going to be peaceful, we're not going to do reprisals, we're going to invite participation from women,'' she told Fox News. 'People literally clinging to the landing gear of aircraft to try to get away from the story that they know is about to be written.'

Thousands of desperate Afghans have been camped outside the Kabul airport for days, anxious to flee the Taliban-controlled country.

Mike Spann always seemed destined for the military.

As a teenager, he had Marine flags plastered on his ceiling and walls. During family trips, he would always want to go by military battlefields and landmarks. Near his graduation from Auburn University, he announced he was joining the Marines, a decision some questioned because he was a young husband.

'Dad, I´ve always wanted to be a Marine. If I don´t do it now, I´ll never have another opportunity,' his father recalled him saying.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mike Spann felt a duty to go to Afghanistan even though the decision would mean leaving his two daughters, infant son and wife.

The span of the war can be measured in Spann´s three children, just youngsters when their father died but now grown.

In the years since his son´s death, Johnny Spann has become obsessed with learning the details - tracking down the autopsy report, photos and speaking to people who worked with his son in his last days. He is also sharply critical of President Joe Biden´s withdrawal decision.

Much of the work his son and others did has been undone, he said, but that doesn't make their contributions meaningless.

'They helped us keep America safe, and that´s what they were doing for 20 years. They did their job. They did what they were supposed to do. They did what they were told to do. But they didn´t die in vain,' he said.

His son, he said, went to find bin Laden: 'He died before we found Osama bin Laden, but I think that maybe some of the things he did helped us get to that point.'

The elder Spann cautioned people not to think that the threat to America has ended with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'This war is not over. We´ve just conceded territory that we took,' he said.

Johnny Spann, father of slain CIA officer Mike Spann of Alabama, who was the first American to die in Afghanistan, pauses at his son's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington

Taliban is intensifying hunt for Afghans who worked for US and UK as they go door-to-door to threaten relatives, UN report warns despite the terror group's claims of an 'amnesty' 

Taliban militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked with UK, US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, according to a confidential report to the UN.

Jihadists are going door-to-door to threaten relatives of civil servants, interpreters and other consular staff, while other militants are even stopping people outside Kabul airport.

Despite the Taliban's claims of an 'amnesty', terrifying video today showed fighters spraying assault rifle bullets just yards away from women and children gathered at the airport's perimeter. 

The UN dossier leaked to The New York Times says the Taliban are 'arresting and/or threatening to kill or arrest family members of target individuals unless they surrender themselves to the Taliban.'

It was filed to the UN by the Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, a group which provides intelligence on global conflicts.

It contained a letter dated August 16 from the Taliban to a senior counter-terror official in Afghanistan who had worked alongside the US and British officials.

The letter ordered the man to report to the Military and Intelligence Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Kabul. If he failed to do so, it warned that his family 'will be treated based on Shariah law.'