Battle Scars

The First Woman to Kill in Battle

Chantelle Taylor was a combat medic in Afghanistan. She took pride in being highly trained in both those trades; saving lives, but also taking them when necessary. During a Taliban ambush on her unit, Chantelle played her role fighting off the attackers. During the firefight she "engaged" one of the enemy - killing him. Those carefully-aimed shots made her the first female soldier in British military history to take a life in combat - a status she neither hides nor celebrates.  
Chantelle is the author of a memoir (Battleworn) and co-hosts the Global Recon podcast.    
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some firefights and bomb blasts never make the news or the history books, but they’re still incidents that changed the lives of those involved. In each episode, host and former soldier Thom Tran talks to fellow veterans of our recent wars. We hear from a badly burned vet who became a TV star; a medic who says God answered his prayers on the battlefield; and one of the few women soldiers to take an enemy life in action. Thom also shares his memories of fighting in Iraq, where a sniper's bullet came within an inch of killing him. Sometimes raw, often funny, but always arresting.