Combat Story (Ep. 78): Ukrainian Marine | Recon Commander | Come Back Alive Foundation Leader | Taras Chmut

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Today we have a more timely Combat Story where we sit down with the head of the Ukrainian Come Back Alive Foundation, Taras Chmut. Come Back Alive provides financing for purely defense initiatives and since 2014, it has provided nearly 1000 thermal imaging devices and over 250 UAVs in addition to material support, technology, and training for the forces fighting the Russians on Ukrainian soil.

Before stepping up to lead this organization, Taras was a Ukrainian Marine rifleman on the front lines in 2015 and then a commander of a reconnaissance unit with UAVs and signals intercept capabilities providing a better picture of the battlefield mainly near Mariupol (which we’ve heard so much about today).

This, like our interviews with Aiden Aslin and Sergey Dyadkin, help shed light on what’s actually going on in this Russian invasion and give each of us a way to do something about it, this time in terms of providing support to this important foundation, which you can do at www.comebackalive.in.ua.

We’ve conducted much of this interview through a translator named Alexander and I hope you appreciate this inside look from Kiev as much as I did.

Find Taras Online:
-Website https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/
-Twitter https://twitter.com/BackAndAlive @comebackalive
-Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TarChmut
-Instagram https://www.instagram.com/taras_chmut/

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Show Notes:

0:00 - Intro
0:34 - Guest Introduction (Taras Chmut)
1:54 - Interview begins
2:26 - The meaning of his name and what it was like growing up in Ukraine
6:24 - Early interest in aviation
7:59 - Where he was in 2014 when he considers the Russia -Ukrainian actually started
11:12 - Path to the military
14:31 - Time with Ukraine Marines and trying to stop Russia from invading
21:18 - Transition to UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) platoon commander
26:52 - The types of missions he was doing with UAVs
31:47 -The Come Back Alive Foundation than and now
37:48 - Opinion of Zelenksy and the future of Ukraine
39:30 - What are you most proud of from the Come Back Alive Foundation?
41:46 - Listener comments and shout outs