This Mi-17 helicopter at CIA Headquarters brought the first Americans into Afghanistan just 15 days after the 9/11 attacks. On the 25th anniversary of its historic mission, CIA restored the aircraft to its 2001 paint scheme.

When the first plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, these men were spread across the world. One was on a flight from Tashkent to Heathrow. Another was in a courtroom thousands of miles from the U.S. finalizing the adoption of his son. A third was underwater off Key West as part of his Special Forces diving course. A fourth was at CIA headquarters, furious that he was evacuated. “Why are we leaving when we can stay and do something?” he asked. When he finally got home, he told his wife: “This is war.” Just over a month later, they became the CIA’s Team Alpha - the first Americans behind enemy lines after 9/11. Here they are at K2 air base in Uzbekistan on October 16, 2001, in front of one of the Black Hawks that flew them into Afghanistan that night. Back row, left to right: Alex Hernandez, Scott Spellmeyer, J. R. Seeger, Mark Rausenberger, David Tyson, Mike Spann. Front row: Andy Hartsog, Justin Sapp (Green Beret captain, attached). Stenciled on the side of the 160th SOAR helicopter was a phrase adapted from the 1987 movie The Untouchables, about Al Capone: “Don’t Bring a Knife to a Gunfight.” Team Alpha’s writ was to extend over Samangan, Balkh, Faryab, Jowzjan, and Sar-e Pol, five of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces. This was a land area of over 30,000 square miles—slightly larger than the state of South Carolina. The men of Team Alpha embodied America’s desire to strike back after 9/11. On September 20, President George W. Bush, in an address to a joint session of Congress, described the United States as “a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom,” declaring: “And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.” One of these eight never came back and is now at rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Team Alpha’s story - a tale of American heroes and how the U.S. won the Afghanistan War in a few weeks before taking 20 years to lose it - is revealed in my book “First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11.” Never forget.