U.S. Veteran Runs Off to Join Kurdish Forces Against ISIS

With each passing day, ISIS is growing more powerful and expanding its borders. What Obama referred to as a “JV team” has made its way into the pros, establishing its own black market for slaves, issuing visas for recruits, and making millions in the oil industry.
However, patriots aren’t willing to give up just yet, at least, that’s what one U.S. military veteran is assuring.
28-year-old veteran Jason Matson knows what it means to truly stand up for what’s right. This young man from Wisconsin could be settling down in suburbia with a family and a job sitting safely in a cubicle, but instead he chose to leave the comforts of a free nation to join Kurdish forces in Syria to fight ISIS.
Matson made the decision to fight against the Islamic State when American journalist James Foley was beheaded by jihadists in August. Matson searched out the YPG, Kurdish forces which accept foreign fighters.

With only a few articles of clothing and toiletries, Matson boarded a flight to Istanbul in order to cross into Syria. He headed for the city of Diyabakir, a prominent Kurdish capital of Turkey, and met with YPG contacts, who took him across the border. Matson went straight into war.
Soon, Matson was struck by an ISIS mortar, causing minor injuries to his foot and eye. He was treated at a local hospital where he befriended other wounded Kurdish soldiers.
Matson has since recovered from his injuries and is focusing on recruiting more foreigners to join the fight against ISIS.
Mashable reports:

Other Americans, however, appear to have found their way to the front without his help.
A man named Brian Wilson recently identified himself to a Reuters photographer in the Syrian town of Kamishli as a U.S. veteran from Ohio now fighting with the YPG. Jeremy Woodard, a 28-year-old veteran from Mississippi who said he had served tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan, told CBS News that he thought that by joining the fight against ISIS, he might inspire other foreigners to follow his example.
Many of the inquiries Matson is fielding come from veterans of the Iraq war. Matson did not see any combat himself, having left the military early for “personal reasons,” he said, without elaborating.

Many of the inquiries Matson fields comes from veterans, but a Daily Beast report suggests that Matson’s own departure from the military was troubled. During a traffic stop in 2012, in which a gun was found in his car, Matson told police that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had been “‘railroaded out’ of the military in 2007.”
Since coming to Syria to fight, Matson’s Facebook page has blown up with fan mail, with Americans and foreigners alike congratulating him on fighting ISIS. Even his mother appears pleased.
I “always knew deep in my heart that God would do something amazing with you,” she recently wrote. “God has revealed to you his purpose and plan, you answered the call, he has equipped you for this journey and in doing so I know he has filled you with his peace. Carry on son, I love you!!”

Regardless of Matson’s reason for leaving the military, he appears to have redeemed himself in Syria. If more of our veterans were given purpose and initiative such as the motivation Matson found in continuing to defend the innocent, we would have fewer homeless veterans. Not everyone belongs in battle, but we owe it to our service members to keep them as productive members of society, and they should be honored as the heroes they are.
We are seeing more service members, and even general citizens, begging to sign up to fight against ISIS, but instead our president sends our troops into Ebola-stricken hot zones.