Chamber speaker Christopher Tanner discusses importance of ethical and moral foundation

During the quarterly Mountain Brook Chamber Luncheon on May 17, guest speaker Capt. Christopher Tanner said he is very thankful for his parents and their patience in raising him and his quadruplet siblings. He also said he is thankful for Mountain Brook and the Mountain Brook community in helping build the moral and ethical foundations that would serve him later in life.

Tanner, who now works at Southern Research, was born and raised in Mountain Brook and went on to graduate from West Point in 2006.

"Right now, we're celebrating our 75th anniversary, and we're reflecting upon our neighborhood and our community's progress and growth. And I wanted to use this opportunity to celebrate that growth and to talk about the small town values and ideals that ... laid the seeds and foundation in me," he said.

Tanner said in society today, it is "critically important," to continue to lay strong foundations for youth, especially as there is greater uncertainty.

"Failure to do that has long-lasting effects for our young people," he said.

He warned that the greatest danger is having a society and younger generation who are disinterested and lack the opportunities to succeed, either because "we have not forced them to put skin in the game," or because "we haven't given them the opportunity for growth and to climb the ladder."

It was in Mountain Brook that he said people taught him to have grit and strong values that eventually led him to West Point, he said. "If it was Mountain Brook that laid my moral and ethical foundation, it was West Point that hammered it into place."

While at West Point, students have an ethical code. It isn't a book, but a single sentence: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do," Tanner said.

"It is often that last part that we as adults have the hardest time dealing with," he added.

Tanner started at West Point shortly before the attacks on Sept. 11, and knew it wasn't if he and others would be deployed, but when.

Ten months into deployment in Iraq and under Gen. David Patraeus, Tanner said he was going out to do a routine patrol when he got a radio transmission at his headquarters. Although it was broken and jumbled, the message was clear: someone was in trouble, and they needed help.

After receiving permission to go, he and his team drove to find a platoon who had hit a deep-buried IED. The 500 pound explosive that was buried in the road had taken the mine-resistant ambush vehicle and thrown it about 200 yards away, separating the cab, tearing the doors off and ejecting the crew in the process.

While managing the situation, Tanner and his team found two detainees in the back of a vehicle and took them back to headquarters. Because there was no evidence or information regarding the detainees, they were released after 72 hours. Lt. Mike Behenna from the injured platoon, along with other platoon members, were then tasked with returning the detainees and apologizing to the village elders.

Behenna was later asked if the detainees made it back to their village. He said they did. But as the days went by, Tanner said more details of the after-effects of the IED blast came to pass.

"Maybe they had not been released ... maybe, the platoon might have thrown one of them out of the vehicle [into the desert], or they might have roughed one of them up," Tanner said. "Or, maybe even killed someone."

Tanner said it was clear that people were talking about it, but no one was taking any action. So Tanner and other officers went to headquarters. After calling in a special investigation team from Kuwait and speaking with the Iraqi army, the investigation later showed that a murder had taken place. All members of Behenna's platoon signed a statement declaring they did not know anything about the situation.

But when the platoon's Iraqi interpreter was threatened with losing his job, he came clean and provided details of the murder.

"Our army values of duty, honor, country, of leadership, selfless service, respect, perseverance, does not fall anywhere into that," Tanner said — the army's role is to safeguard the detainees. "And that's not what happened."

Behenna pleaded not guilty on the terms of self defense. Due to the details of the situation, Tanner said the prosecution disagreed and didn't care what the excuses were; Behenna had lied to an officer and failed to uphold the values of the Army as an organization. He received 25 years in prison, the highest sentence given to an officer in combat, and the rest of his platoon was dishonorably discharged.

"It's not something that I'm very proud of, but it's something that I think stands an important point: we have values and ideals that we uphold, and we have to stick to them," he said.

Tanner was deployed again, to Afghanistan, and again served under Petraeus' staff and directly for Gen. John Campbell at the top level to see where everyone was in the country. When he arrived, he said troops were being told to hold land, to secure terrain, and they were suffering heavy casualties. He then was given the opportunity to take command along the Pakistan border.

Tanner and others developed a new plan after talking to leadership, which would move soldiers in and not tie troops to land. After nine months, they shut down the border and rocket attacks per day dropped to zero.

"[After that,] the soldiers knew what their place was," he said. "They knew what their purpose in life was. And more importantly, we reinforced that with them continually, and I think that's an important part of leadership."

Tanner said that all comes back to small town, community values.

"Each and every day, whether its in business, whether its in our community ... our young people are forced to make incredibly difficult and split second decisions," he said, and those young people will refer to the values and training from when they were being raised.

"Five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, those fruits are going to come to bear. And we've seen it here in our own community," he said. When the younger generations are supported, educated and held to those values, it can lead to positive benefits for the community and surrounding communities.

"I feel blessed to call Mountain Brook my home. I have been all around the world, and looked evil in face, and seen the darkest corners of the world. But that darkness is encroaching on our own shores," he said.

As he closed his speech, he asked that families honor the sacrifice of soldiers on the upcoming Memorial Day and continue investing in the communities and continue investing in the people living in those communities.

"What we do here has that cascading effect that one day, will affect the whole world," he said. "So while times may seem bleak and uncertain when we watch the news everyday, the things that we affect closest to us within our community are going to have the greatest effect in days to come."