I just happened to pick up my newspaper today in South Carolina, "The Post and Courier" and in section "F" is a picture of a Retired Army Brig. Gen - Hugh Tant and a poster behind him of the Iraqi Dinar - He was responsible for helping Iraq transition from "Saddam" currency to nwe Iraqi notes as "head of Currency Exchange". This is the first time I have seen something like this in our local newspaper. I wish I could get the picture on here, behind him is a poster of a 5000 Iraqi dinar note. The story follows: See if someone can find the picture to post, I am not that savy, sorry

friendly format sponsored by:
The New Media Department of The Post and Courier

SATURDAY, MAY 05, 2007 9:49 AM


'Dancing General' triple steps through illustrious military career



BY ROB YOUNG
The Post and Courier


His cell phone rings and Gnarls Barkley roars.

"I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind."

It's quite the ringtone for a retired brigadier general.

An unlikely selection for shag music, too.

But Hugh Tant and his wife love dancing to the song.

Does that make him crazy?

During his time at the Pentagon, Tant would shag through the hallways in full uniform, drawing stares, a few laughs and an apt sobriquet.

"The Dancing General," his colleagues called him.

He took his act across the globe, dancing in Iraq, doing the triple step in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"It just kind of lifts the spirits," he says.

And to think, Tant once managed $44 billion, two-thirds of the Army's budget. He even helped provide the foundation for a new Iraqi economy as the U.S. director of the Iraqi Currency Exchange. Now, he chairs Mount Pleasant's War Memorial Study Committee, guiding the effort to build a $12 million waterfront park.
But then, Tant, a senior vice president at Southeast Community Bank, has no room for half-truths or secrets. In all things, be yourself. And if the Dancing General fits, wear it.

"It's like being pregnant," he says. "Either you are or you're not."

'A blessing'

Tant, a Mount Pleasant native, crisscrossed America and the globe during his military days, moving 19 times. Here's his most important stop: Fort Campbell, Ky., 1973.

There, he spied a young Army nurse in white uniform, white stockings, her legs crossed, one foot dangling.

"I felt like a largemouth bass," Tant jokes.

It wasn't a storybook setting, merely a classroom instead. The course: vehicle accident prevention. Still, Tant was smitten.

No ring, he noticed, but Christine Ritland was writing a letter. He craned his neck to spot the salutation: Dear Mom and Dad.

Relief. No boyfriend. Though her parents had warned her about Army guys. Tant tried to talk to her each break. No luck.

Then finally, the course done, he made a joke to friends. "We've just seen all these gruesome accidents," he told them. "I was thinking about selling my horse. I think I'll just sell my car instead."

Guess who was listening?

"Oh, do you have a horse?" Chris asked. Her family kept a horse on their farm in Iowa.

Tant saw his opening. "I'd bet you'd like to go horseback riding, wouldn't you?"

Eventually, they did. And eventually Tant sold the same horse. It fetched its owner enough money to buy a beautiful wedding ring for his bride.

It's fair to say it turned out OK. He and Chris celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary last month.

"It was a blessing," Tant says. "I had prayed to meet a wonderful woman and God answers prayers."

Delivery under fire

In Chris, Tant found the perfect partner, someone supportive and accomplished in her own right. Chris retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel, spending eight years in active service, 22 years in reserve.

Together, they raised twin daughters, now grown. Elizabeth Tant Angerman graduated from West Point, Anna Tant from the University of Richmond with honors.

The family moved to Mount Pleasant in the early '80s during Tant's stint as a Citadel instructor. Though soon Tant left for Fort Bragg, where he served with the 82nd Airborne division. They rented their home for 18 years, then returned in 2001 when Tant retired.

He had just moved back to the area when a plane crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, killing 33 people in his former sector.
"That was depressing to me," he says. "And then I saw our soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq - those were my former units."

Tant still felt bound by duty. So he leapt when Paul Bremer, then the U.S. administrator of Iraq, asked him to lead the effort to switch the Iraqi currency in 2004.

Consider the challenge. Tant needed to dispose of 13,000 tons of paper currency and import more than 2,300 tons from abroad.

"Everybody said we wouldn't be able to do it," Tant recalls.

Instead, Tant and 700 others he directed finished the job in a few months.

"It normally takes two to three years to bring on a new currency in peace," he says. "My guys did it (in) six months."

They did so under hostility. His men dealt with frequent ambushes, especially in Samarra. Just two weeks before Saddam Hussein's capture, insurgents attacked again. This time, Tant had asked for extra assistance, 10 tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, an Apache helicopter and an Air Force A-10 Warthog. A 45-minute battle ensued, and in the end, at least 46 insurgents lay dead. Tant's men still succeeded, transferring their load, two large shipments. He and his team also had a new motto: Delivery under fire.

Still shagging

After all these years, he's still shagging. Tant and his wife took second place in the Mount Pleasant Blessing of the Fleet's shag contest last weekend. The past five years, they've finished first three times and second twice.

Tant, 57, has always enjoyed competition. In the military, he challenged new officers or soldiers to push-up contests. He was beaten only once as a Citadel instructor by cadet Norm Engard.

"I beat him two hands, then we went to one hand," Tant says. "I think we were around the 30th rep on the left arm when he got me."

He still works out at home, a routine from his days as a former state light heavyweight weight-lifting champion.

"See, grab here," Tant says, flexing his bicep.

Just don't get too close. He keeps a few kicks in his arsenal. Tant learned the moves in Seoul, Korea, studying for his black belt in tae kwon do.

In his work and avocations, Tant's allegiance and dedication endure. "In all things, tell the truth," he says.

He's lived by those words.



About Hugh

BORN: Roper Hospital, Charleston, June 1949.

OCCUPATION: Retired Army brigadier general; presently senior vice president, Southcoast Community Bank.

FAMILY: Christine (wife of 33 years); twin daughters, Anna Malinda Tant and Elizabeth Frances (Tant) Angerman; son-in-law Jeffrey Charles Angerman; and 1-year-old granddaughter, Ashley Elizabeth.

TOP THREE THINGS I'D LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH: Learn more languages and improve upon my German and Spanish, travel the United States and abroad, and trace my family's genealogy.



Hugh Tant

WHEN I'M NOT ENGAGED IN WORK: I go shagging with my beautiful wife, walk our two Labs, visit our beautiful granddaughter and her parents in Frisco, Texas, work out with weights and exercise with the elliptical machine about six days per week, and go to church and Sunday school at St. John's Lutheran Church and attend various organizations such as the Exchange Club of Charleston, Washington Light Infantry and German Friendly Society.

FAVORITE BOOK: 'Beach Music' by Pat Conroy

FAVORITE LOCAL RESTAURANT: Morgan Creek Grill

I'M ANNOYED BY: Disrespect for human dignity.

IF I HAD TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN: I would have met my wife, Christine Ritland Tant, earlier and married her two years sooner.

MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: When making my first military jump (which was also my first time on a plane), I was a second lieutenant and was in charge of leading new paratroopers out the jump door. I heard the engines roar of the C-130 Hercules aircraft and felt movement. After about 20 minutes, I nervously asked the jumpmaster who was a combat-seasoned sergeant, 'How long will it be until they open the jump doors?' The sergeant elbowed his fellow jumpmaster sergeant and asked me to repeat my question. After I repeated my question, the sergeants laughed like crazy and said, 'Relax, Lieutenant, we haven't taken off yet! We are just taxing the runway!'

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS: The fact that we didn't take out Osama bin Laden years ago when we had a chance. The fact that we didn't strike Saddam and his brutal regime before he killed more than 500,000 of his own people and constantly violated U.N. sanctions for 10 years. When our nation sends its Armed Forces into harm's way, any dissension among our elected officials only empowers and encourages the enemy to step up their operations, causing more harm to our troops and delaying victory.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE INFLUENCED MY LIFE: My parents. I can still hear their encouraging words and saying that I can be whatever I want to be through persistence, hard work, integrity and right thought.

PART OF HISTORY IN WHICH I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO have PARTICIPATEd: World War II. When our country was attacked, our citizens set aside their differences and united with a single purpose: victory. Every able-bodied person did everything he could to serve either in uniform or as a civilian, contributing positively to ensure success on the battlefield.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME: My nickname is Toogie Bear, given to me by my wife.

STRONGEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY: Hearing my father pray when he didn't know I was listening.

Hugh has now moved back to Mt. Pleasant, SC and I am sure he will have plenty of dinar. Something has got to break soon, now this thing as come home to the local news. I never heard anyone else in SC, especially 20 minutes away from me that knew of the dinar, much less was involved in it all.