The story behind the first CIA officers in Afghanistan after 9/11

Twenty-five years ago, a Soviet-designed helicopter crossed the mountains of Afghanistan carrying the first CIA officers sent into the country after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, marking the opening move in the U.S. response that would soon become America’s longest war. 

The seven-man CIA team, code-named JAWBREAKER, landed in the Panjshir Valley on Sept. 26, 2001, just 15 days after the attacks, carrying millions of dollars in cash intended to help enlist and equip Afghan allies. Their mission was to gather intelligence and prepare the ground for the looming U.S. campaign against al-Qaeda and the Taliban — including by shoring up ties with the Northern Alliance, whose military leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, had been assassinated by al-Qaeda operatives just two days before 9/11.

The Mi-17 that carried them there is now on display at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where it has undergone an extensive restoration ahead of the anniversary.

Former CIA officer David Tyson followed JAWBREAKER into Afghanistan weeks later as a member of Team Alpha, and remembers flying aboard the same aircraft before the war.

“It was shaking a lot, fuel was leaking, very noisy, and I didn’t know if it was airworthy,” Tyson told CBS News in an interview, “but I was assured by the pilots it was a good bird.”

A helicopter built to blend in

The CIA acquired the Mi-17 in the 1990s, calculating that its Soviet origins would be an advantage in the region.

“The Northern Alliance and the Taliban both used Mi-17s,” CIA historian Rob Byer told CBS News. “They’re Russian helicopters and kind of the pickup truck of helicopters in that region.”

“The big reason we got an Mi-17 rather than flying in a Blackhawk is because it blends in,” Byer said. “And when you’re going behind enemy lines, you’d like to blend in as much as you can.”

It could also handle the punishing altitude. To reach the Panjshir Valley, JAWBREAKER had to cross the Anjuman Pass, which rises roughly 14,500 feet above sea level.

“The Mi-17 is one of the few helicopters that can actually make it over that pass,” Byer said.

The aircraft had no transponder to identify it to American warplanes, leaving its crew to improvise. They painted “USA” and an American flag across the tops of its stabilizers, visible to friendly pilots overhead but concealed from enemy eyes on the ground. With no blue paint available, the crew left the flag unfinished. And in a reminder of the attacks that had brought them there, they gave the helicopter the call sign “9-11-01.”

The Mi-17 would go on to fly more than 300 missions in Afghanistan, remaining in service until 2012.

Team Alpha goes to war

Tyson was a CIA case officer based in Central Asia who was steeped in local languages, including Uzbek, Turkmen and Russian. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was on a flight to the United Kingdom for a meeting related to the CIA’s efforts to recover Stinger missiles that had remained in Afghanistan, many of which were sent there in a U.S.-backed initiative during the Soviet war. 

Soon after he landed, he began planning his return, realizing his expertise would likely take him to Afghanistan.

“I knew that I would be involved given my languages and experience and so forth and where I was based in Central Asia,” Tyson recalled.

On Oct. 17, less than three weeks after JAWBREAKER arrived in the Panjshir Valley, Tyson and the rest of Team Alpha were inserted into a different part of northern Afghanistan, becoming the first Americans sent behind Taliban lines. Their mission was to work with forces commanded by Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum as part of the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

“This was something we hadn’t done before,” Tyson said, describing a mission that involved working with local forces to “basically prosecute a war.”

His principal role was intelligence and liaison work. He worked closely with Dostum’s Uzbek-speaking forces, helping his team understand the people and environment around them. The Americans traveled with Afghan fighters on horseback through the mountains, sometimes riding as long as 14 hours a day.

“The horses were not friendly,” Tyson recalled. “They were stallions, they fought between each other, they bit us, they kicked us, they tried to knock us off. And the gear, the kit, the saddles were basically wooden frames with carpets thrown on them.”

By late November, Taliban forces had collapsed across much of northern Afghanistan. Hundreds of foreign fighters had surrendered and were taken to Qala-i-Jangi, a sprawling 19th-century fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif.

On Nov. 25, Tyson and fellow CIA officer Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann entered Qala-i-Jangi, where their initial task was to determine who the prisoners were and where they came from.

“For the most part, they were responding and identifying themselves as al-Qaeda members, people who had given oath of allegiance to bin Laden,” Tyson said. Among the prisoners was John Walker Lindh, a California native who moved to the region in 2000 and joined the Taliban.

Hours into their mission, the prisoners rose up.

“There were explosions, gunfire, and a lot of yelling,” Tyson recalled. “I started seeing things in what I would call slow motion,” he said. “Things were moving slowly, but almost automatically.”

At a certain point he heard Spann call his name, and began moving toward his partner through the fighting.

“I remember seeing his … silhouette or body on the ground,” Tyson said. “I believe Mike was already dead when I got to him and I was able to shoot the men on top of him and took Mike’s rifle from him.”

Spann, 32, became the first American killed in combat in Afghanistan. His was the 79th star carved into the CIA’s Memorial Wall.

Tyson fought his way to safety with Spann’s rifle, which he continued using for the rest of his deployment. It is now displayed in the CIA Museum, alongside the pair of boots Tyson wore throughout his deployment. Tyson’s then-8-year-old son later dubbed them “Dad’s lucky boots.” 

“That rifle saved my life, I think, among other things,” Tyson said. “It’s very fitting, I think, that that rifle’s in the museum. Again, it reminds us of Mike and who he was.”

Restoring a piece of CIA history

After its final operational mission in 2012, the Mi-17 was brought to CIA headquarters in 2018. Its fuel lines and other components were removed and it was installed outside amid rocks meant to resemble the Afghan landscape.

Years of exposure to the elements took a toll. “The paint had faded greatly due to the sun and a few critters were getting inside as well,” Byer said.

Over the past year, the CIA sealed openings in the aircraft and repainted it to more closely resemble how it looked in 2001. The green was deliberately made slightly more vivid, Byer said, so exposure to the sun will eventually fade it to the intended shade.

The restoration also brought back “607,” the call sign of the Afghan pilot who flew the first mission. Painted on both sides of the Mi-17 in 2001, the number helped it pass as a Northern Alliance aircraft while signaling to allied pilots that it was friendly.

For Tyson, the artifacts preserve a much more personal history.

“As Mike would say, he wanted to be on the tip of the spear,” Tyson said. “He was that, and he is today. He will be that forever. And for me to be part of that was just something that obviously I won’t forget.”

Tyson said he still thinks about Spann and his sacrifice on “a daily basis.”

“I’d like to think he helps guide me through things,” he added.

Tyson and Spann’s widow, Shannon Spann DeBruyn, are now among those involved with Badger Six, a nonprofit created in 2022 and named after Spann’s call sign to assist the Afghan fighters who worked alongside Team Alpha, as well as their families. The organization says it currently supports about 35 families with assistance ranging from food and medicine to relocation and resettlement support.

For Tyson, that work is part of a mission that did not end when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban reclaimed power, leaving some of the Afghan partners who had fought alongside Americans behind and vulnerable to Taliban reprisals. Asked whether he feels an obligation to help where governments have not, Tyson answered simply, “Sure, yeah. That’s what people do. That’s what we do.”