What Happened When Wisconsin Man Jordan Matson Decided To Take On ISIS

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/08/jordan-matson-isis_n_5952786.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

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“I was Googling the Syrian civil war looking for a military force fighting ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIL) that wasn’t a terrorist organization. I found the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Unit) on Facebook and saw it wasn’t a terrorist organization so I contacted them,” he said.

“They asked me a few questions to make sure I wasn’t pro-ISIS and then they told me I could come. I just flew by the seat of my pants.”

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to discuss Matson for privacy reasons and said she was unaware of any law barring a U.S. citizen from fighting with the Kurds.

Matson flew from Chicago to Warsaw to Istanbul and then drove to Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. There he was picked up by a YPG member who drove him to Iraq, where he crossed the border into Syria pretending to be a doctor.

“They don’t pay me, but they treat me like family. If I need anything, they look after me,” he said.

Able to speak a few words of Kurdish and with the help of sign language, he manages to get his point across to his comrades and the doctors at the run-down hospital filled with wounded fighters in this largely desolate city.

Matson said the Kurdish forces are very young, with no heavy weapons or body armor. “Sometimes it’s just kids. That’s the way it is. I have a Kalashnikov (automatic rifle). That’s it.

“In the dark, with no night vision goggles, we can’t see ISIS,” he said. “The other night 12 black figures walked towards our base and just started shooting at us.”