Col. Chris Conner joined the Marine Corps in 1992 as an enlisted reservist and in 2000 he was accepted to Officer Candidate School then commissioned as a 2nd LT assigned to 1st Battalion 8th Marines as an infantry platoon commander. His time with 1/8 brought him to Iraq in 2003 to the city of Mosul in the early stages of the war and again in 2004 as part of the legendary battle of Fallujah, where his unit served as a crucial part of the main effort to clear the city of enemy fighters as they fought their way through one of the largest urban battles since the Vietnam War. In April 2009 he was selected to command Charlie Co of 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion and led them through combat in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan as part of operation Khanjar. From 2018-2020 he was selected to go back to 2nd LAR as its battalion commander. Col. Conner currently serves as the Division Chief, Global Force Management Policy, Process, and Technology, for the Joint Forces, J-35 South in Norfolk. Chris Conner was my company commander in Afghanistan and in this episode we reconnect for the first time in 15 years as we discuss our vastly different roles on that deployment.
