On Monday, September 12, representatives of the Mikov company met at the Prague Community Center for War Veterans with members of the UNPROFOR mission who had been directly involved in the shelling of the Tango 23 Repetitor observation post, some of whom were wounded, an attack in which two Czech soldiers—Sergeant Petr Valeš and Staff Sergeant Luděk Zeman—were killed.
“It was an incredible experience for me to hear firsthand accounts of what happened back then. And that only confirmed the wisdom of the recommendation by former Chief of the General Staff Aleš Opata to name the knife—a portion of the proceeds from which goes to the Military Solidarity Fund—by this name: Repetitor,” said Martin David, Mikova’s sales director.
Major Roman Hippík, the designer of the Repetitor knife and the driving force behind the War Veteran project, also attended the social event. The project serves to systematically support the Military Solidarity Fund through a share of the proceeds from a series of knives inspired by the Czech Army’s overseas missions.
“I was very pleased that the entire gathering gradually turned into a working meeting, during which excellent suggestions were made on how we could work together to help war veterans even more. We’re taking away many ideas that we’ll be discussing in depth with the veterans, and I believe we’ll be able to implement many of them as soon as possible. We’ll, of course, keep you informed about further activities,” added Martin David.
Mikov launched the War Veteran project in 2019. So far, three knives have been released—the limited-edition M-1917, Storm, and Repetitor—which have already raised 350,000 crowns for the Military Solidarity Fund.