Original subtitles

- What brought me here?

- Move! - Adventure, adrenaline.

But in the end, I think it's gonna be guilt

that'll keep me here. He's gone.

- A lot of people, they don't cope so well

coming back into the civilian world.

- It's hard to get back home and just relax.

Being here in the states, I'm as happy as I'm gonna be,

but it's not as good as it is over there.

- Move! Levi's always a morale boost.

He's always making jokes.

- We are here at the upcoming Taylor Swift concert.

My mom and dad,

they don't exactly know that I'm here right now.

- PJ is focused on fighting street to street.

Until he finds that, I don't think he's gonna be at peace.

- ISIS, one of the most dangerous

terrorist groups on earth.

They've brutally conquered territories

all across the Middle East

and spread fear across the globe.

Their goal is to create a worldwide Islamic state,

and they will do anything to achieve it.

Against the advice of the U.S. military,

some Americans are fighting back.

- In the truck! In the truck!

- This isn't just their war.

It's everybody's problem.

- Hold him! Somebody grab him!

- Some of us were not able to just sit back

and watch this happen on the news.

- We're men of action, not men of words over here.

- This is their story.

- I'm going through my mags, cleaning them,

making sure my rifle is functioning properly.

We're finding faulty rounds.

You don't want to fire these rounds.

[whistles]

We're now on the outskirts of the city of Shaddadi,

and it's right up a main route into Raqqa.

Our goal is simply disrupt reinforcements

that ISIS can send between Mosul and Raqqa,

the two major strongholds of ISIS.

- Fire.

- Roger. Clear.

- I'm currently attached to a combat infantry unit.

Our job will be to go into Shaddadi,

locate ISIS, and destroy them.

We have almost no idea

how many ISIS are holed up inside of there.

Hopefully there's a couple that still wanna fight.

- Move!

[gunshot]

- Did you get it?

- Clear.

- Kitchen's clear.

- We're good.

- Shit.

- Clear.

- The operation was successful.

They were kind of all scared off from coalition air support.

Daesh evacuated.

Those of them that made it out of the city

probably to Raqqa.

Here we are, now victorious, no Daesh in the city.

Everybody's just kind of hanging out dancing, partying.

[gunfire]

We celebrate every win.

Every win is important to us out here with the YPG and YPJ.

[gunfire]

- [trilling]

- The YPJ is the women's protection unit.

They make up 30 to 40% of the frontline fighters.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- Okay. - Thank you. Thank you.

- Yep. - Thank you.

They take our houses and live in our rooms.

- "I seek nothing from this life but Shahada."

- Liars.

They are liars.

- [sighs]

Lots of different reasons.

I wouldn't say it's because I like to kill people.

You know, that's such a...

Not only is it such a stupid thing to say,

but it's not a very good representation

of, I would say, many of the people that come here.

Daesh, they're raping woman, they're killing babies,

they're doing every despicable act

that you could possibly think of.

Slavery, extortion.

Anything that I can do to help stop them,

that's what I'm gonna do.

- Levi's the youngest in my unit,

but he's one of the most dedicated guys here.

Levi's a guy who's just happy being out here

and making a difference.

- Say what?

- "It's hard to be without you here.

We all miss you."

So I wrote her, "Mom, everything's hard,

but you have to be strong." [laughs]

"I know, but when are you coming home?"

- That's basically what I get from my father

and my mother and my sister.

"Come home, come home. Are you done fighting?"

We all have loved ones at home that miss us.

There's no telling how long we'll still be in Shaddad.

It'd be nice to know more as we pulled into these areas,

but there's a breakdown in communication.

Nothing's ever translated to us.

Turns out we've become a support platoon at this point.

We took one KIA yesterday, a western KIA.

He was a German guy, so the command is a little iffy.

They're a little sketchy about sending us forward.

That'll set the tone for the rest of the operations

in the near future.

Clear.

- I don't like that the YPGs

is confiscating shotguns and pistols from these guys.

I don't like it at all.

This is personal protection.

They have a right to keep this to protect their families.

It's not my policy, though.

A pretty jumbled operation.

Teams are getting mixed up.

There's no presence of Daesh whatsoever, just civilians.

- What I'm always hoping for

is, like, straight up surrounded by ISIS

and trying to fight our way out of it.

They're not gonna let me fight

unless I happen to be in a unit that gets ambushed.

I understand why. There's reasons why.

Every westerner over here has, what,

a $200,000, at least, bounty on their head.

I'm a high-value target just because I'm American.

ISIS would love to kill us.

They'd love to capture us alive.

Just like they've done many other reporters

and fighters in the past,

cut our heads off or burn us on TV.

Me chasing a fight that would end up in suicide

or me being okay with always being behind the front line.

Which one do I want?

- Welcome.

- Whoo! - Whoo!

- Okay. - Copy that.

- I don't think there's like a bigger group of jackasses

in the world in, like, a dangerous place

doing all this crazy shit

than are the emergency medicine team.

- Let's look at it in a good way as to how Jorge operates.

Jorge, how old are you?

- I think it's 34.

I'm not sure. - [laughs]

- My name is Jorge Garcia,

and I'm 34 apparently,

and I'm in support of these medics here.

When I showed up,

I thought it was a motley crew that would implode.

- Holy [bleep]!

Can you imagine standing here three days ago?

- No, we couldn't do that. - No.

I remember running out in that field for my [bleep] life.

Oh, no, it was over there.

- You have Derek, you have Pete, who is a former Marine,

and you have these Slovakian guys.

- But then he's all tatted up

like he's done time in San Quentin.

- Who said I didn't do time in San Quentin?

- I didn't say you didn't.

- Yeah, our vetting process is pretty lax.

- Yeah.

- And here I am in the middle of all this.

- Is that how you get all the salt in your peppered hair?

- Yeah.

- It's just little squirts of salt?

- Jorge doesn't really have medical training

outside of basic military knowledge,

but he's got a camera.

He does pretty good pictures.

- Come on, guys, together. Close together there.

- It started in Afghanistan.

We had an embedded photographer with us,

and I was amazed at the power of the camera.

He sparked an interest in me.

I was kind of jealous.

All I had was a rifle. The camera was better.

I want to go places where other people don't really wanna go

so the public has a better understanding

of these situations.

I'm not a medic, but they want me to pull security,

and they wanted me to go with them.

Now my job is to be in the back of a pickup truck

aiming a weapon around.

I have to protect them.

- Say again, Pete. You broke up.

- Daesh is preparing to attack

with five V.B.I.E.D.s and snipers.

- Copy. - I'm gonna tell Alan, okay?

- Jorge has no fear, like zero fear.

The guy doesn't wear body armor or a helmet.

- That armored column

is pushed up farther than it was before.

- Incoming?

[explosion]

- Hopefully he doesn't get killed,

'cause Jorge does everything he can

to put himself in harm's way.

- Bravery is half stupidity.

I can't admire anybody else's bravery more than him.

He just went into this [bleep] battle with no armor,

just a camera and an AK.

- Another glorious day here in sunny Northern Iraq.

- Whoo!

Aah!

It's like, ooh!

Hey, there's a car out there!

Hit 'em!

[laughs]

- Oh, shit. Suicide bomber!

Suicide bomber! [laughs]

- Get on him! Get on him!

- Oh, shit!

Oh, shit, that was awesome!

Whoa-ho-ho-ho!

Whoa, it's raining down!

Whoo!

I think it's history,

and I wanted to have a front row seat

and watch this play out.

- No, I know. Dude, obviously.

There's an IED connected to this hatch right here, and--

- Firat said it was right there.

He said the thing was connected.

- Come on in.

- Goddamn it.

I got my hopes up for nothing.

Welcome to Hotel Shaddadi.

If you follow me in here, this is the humble abode.

We have running water, luckily.

No power, no electricity.

Here's the kitchen, bathroom.

We haven't really used them quite.

I don't even like using the bathroom in here.

It just makes this whole compound stink.

Keep coming.

And in here is the western room.

The filthiest room of them all.

It'd be nice to get a shower in if possible.

Do you have clean clothes to put on?

Yeah?

I'm just gonna hold off.

This guy's kind of an asshole.

I don't really like him. - [laughs]

- Up here on the roof

is where we do guard duty, fire watch at night.

I haven't quite fought as much as I wanted to.

I'm a little demoralized.

I came here to fight, and if I'm not able to fight,

there's no reason for me to be here.

Black and white, plain and simple.

- If I were to leave now,

by the time I got back into Iraq and flying out,

it'd be 11 months for me.

Some people come here for a week and go home,

some people a couple months.

Most people aren't here a year or longer.

Surely I'm missing out on a lot.

Life, love.

I definitely miss my family.

- Yeah, I'm pretty much done here.

- I'm gonna miss these guys.

You forge a brotherhood out here.

- Oh, you're such a dick.

- Asshole.

- It's going.

Oh, Johnny Vegas buries him in dirt.

- Buried me.

I don't think I have anything to counter that.

Oh, yes, I do.

- Oh, you son of a bitch.

- One more?

- Yeah.

We're not ending on that, dude.

[gunfire]

- Yeah, dude.

- Apparently I'm out of here, probably in the next hour.

I'm headed to another location

that'll take us to another location,

and hopefully my flight home.

Here I go.

- I'm more than excited to go back home,

but a little nervous as well.

It's the smuggling that always presents a problem.

If I get caught at a checkpoint, that's it, straight to jail.

- Freshman year we were sitting in shop over here,

and I remember watching us bombing the shit out of Baghdad,

and I was like, that's fucking amazing.

That's the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.

And I think instinctly it put something in my brain,

and then it just marinated and ripened for three years,

and when I became a senior,

I was like [bleep] this [bleep], I'm gonna go do that.

I knew that was my chance to become something in life.

It [bleep] worked.

It got me the hell out of here.

I got to go overseas and, you know, [bleep] [bleep] up

and create my addiction over there, I guess.

[bleep] rain.

A little over two months now

I've been debating on what I'm gonna do.

It's hard to get back home

and just relax and just turn off the switch.

I feel more trapped here than I do overseas.

It's very hard to be normal and adapt back to normal society.

If you could transport me like that,

Fuck, yeah, I'd be back in Syria in a heartbeat.

I just want to be where I know I make a difference.

I'm trying to go over as soon as I can get people

to help contribute the equipment that I need

and the other means I need to get back.

I got a few churches to do phone calls with.

All right. [sighs]

No swearing, no swearing, no swearing.

[phone rings]

- You've reached the main voicemail

for Hunter First Baptist.

- Hey, how you doing? My name is Jeremiah Woods.

I'm just trying to touch base with you

and kind of insight you on some stuff that--

what I've been doing overseas.

[phone rings]

- I'm just trying to get a time

to come in and maybe talk to you,

link face to face.

- Uh, Christian.

We're all--

- Well, I don't--

- You have a great day. - Bye-bye.

- All right, cheers.

Southern Baptist right there at its finest.

Let's do one more.

[phone rings]

- I went overseas to fight against ISIS

and everything that's going on over there.

[cell phone beeps]

It's a very tedious process.

I don't feel great about having to rely on other people

to get me back over, but it's not me

just trying to get a free ride over there.

It's me trying to get back over there so I can help.

All right.

Let's go knock this shit out.

Thanks for taking the time to meet us, guys.

I appreciate it. - Yeah.

- Steven. - Nice to meet you.

- Dave? David? - That's right, yeah, man.

- I do security work.

I was in the military for six-and-a-half years,

and went through my struggles to try to find my calling,

I guess you could say.

I figured I'd volunteer and go back over there

and start fighting ISIS.

- Is what you're doing spiritual work?

Is it rebuilding construction work?

What's the gospel or spiritual component look like?

- I can get you some literature.

- Does that work?

- Yes, sir, thank you very much.

This is Grace Baptist Church.

This is the church I actually grew up at.

- Raising the money to get back over there,

it's proven a lot of obstacles.

I've never done this before,

so having to talk to people and be direct with them,

it's stressful as hell.

Sitting still for very long, it makes me uncomfortable.

Being complacent scares the shit out of me.

It would be a lot easier for me to stay home

and do drugs and drink and just party.

I think me going over is kind of a cleanser,

and to show my family I'm not a fuck up.

There's nothing I wouldn't do to get back over there.

- We made it through the checkpoints.

That tastes like freedom.

I feel so free today,

my mind's already back in America.

I'm sitting here watching fireworks.

This is amazing, man.

- Hey, dude.

- How we doing?

- Good. I love you.

- I love you too, Mom.

- You doing good?

- I remember when he was in the Marines

and he was in Iraq,

we were talking one day

and he said, "Well, I'm a mama's boy."

And I said, "Son, the other Marines are gonna hear you,"

and they all yelled out, "Ma'am, we're all mama's boys."

And it was--it so funny.

- Yeah.

Coming home was pretty surreal.

A lot of mixed emotions.

- Cheers, man. - Cheers, you guys.

So I got smuggled into Syria and then out of Syria.

We're working together.

This is a global force, and it's kind of important.

Fighting for your life and those around you

is something you kind of have to experience to understand.

- You're the modern-day Rambo.

- No, not really.

I haven't lived in my home state of Michigan

since I was 19.

There's a little bit of excitement,

there's a little bit of anger,

there's a little bit of frustration.

Everything just really comes to a halt.

Every time I come back home, it's like a different city.

- Work, man. Families.

Everybody has families these days.

I'm one of the few

that has remained unmarried and no children.

Every three years or less I'm moving,

a new state, a new country, somewhere.

A new job, something.

It's what keeps my mind actively interested in things.

- I don't know what he's gonna do next.

I don't think he's found

anything exciting enough or dangerous enough

to follow up with fighting against ISIS in Syria.

- Where I'll be a year from now, there's no telling.

I'll probably find somewhere else to go

and burn the rest of this wanderlust out of me

before I settle down.

- This is my chest rig.

It serves as a universal chest rig

so I can put in anything from magazines to lenses

if I need to.

We're not at the house most of the time.

We're sleeping out on the front line.

We come here to refit, and then we head back out.

It looks like next week's gonna be very busy,

so we might not have the opportunity to come back again.

- We've used half of our med supplies.

So many casualties,

and we're expecting so many more.

Mosul is this big circle

with a line going through the middle

that is the Tigris river.

Now Iraqi army are starting to enclose around it,

and they're gonna go in there.

So we'll be on the outside of this two-way shooting gallery,

and as people are brought to us,

patch them up, keep them alive as best as we can,

and send them on to the hospitals.

Hopefully with a pretty good success rate.

I'm not that optimistic.

As the guy who's helping bring everyone into the field,

I definitely feel responsible for a lot of things.

I'm just as scared as everybody else.

Scared shitless as everybody else.

Every volunteer that comes here,

everyone actually works the front fucking line.

I don't know what'll go first,

med supplies, transportation, my sanity.

- When I wake up in the morning,

I think I could be back in Syria waking up

and it's my turn for guard duty.

I'm sitting over here

thinking about the guys that are still over there fighting.

And at this point they're there without me.

It sucks.

I haven't heard from them since maybe the day after I got home.

I'm not sure exactly what they're doing,

but they definitely daily cross my mind.

- I have a lot of good friends back home.

I'm looking forward to seeing them.

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of people

when I get back home.

- What? I'm not the one who buys it.

- You know, it's like I'm here.

Just make the most of it.

Besides the work itself, it's not even really that hard.

At a certain point,

you learn to just embrace the suck, as it were.

And just remember that what you're doing is a good thing.

- [speaking foreign language]

- If something ends up happening to me,

I would just want my mom to know that I'm sorry.

Maybe eventually I'll sit down and have a talk with her,

but for now I'm just hoping that someday

she can understand and forgive me

if she has any resentment towards it, but...

- The Consulate called me from Turkey,

and the man asked me, "When did you see your son last?"

And I said, "January,"

and he said, "Well, do you know where he is?"

And I said, "He's in Texas."

He asked me about hair color, eye color, tattoos,

and I kept asking him, "Why are you asking me that?"

He finally said, "Well, I have to tell you,

"we have reason to believe

that your son was killed in Syria."

I mean, he could walk through the door right now,

and I'd just say, "Well, you should have called.

You should have called, you know, I've been worried."

It just doesn't...

It doesn't register.

- 24-year-old Levi Shirley

died in the war against terrorism.

Levi died on July 14th

in a small town about 23 miles from the Turkish border.

In a letter from the Kurdish forces, it reads in part,

"With Levi's strength, it's our belief in the future,

we can all live together across our differences."

- I found out about Levi's death

from a friend of mine that was still in country.

[gunfire]

[explosion]

- I loved the kid to death.

- He's lost five or six comrades,

and each one affects him.

Every time he gets a call or a message, you know,

he lets me know, and I can see the hurt.

And I know that he feels bad

because some people's men didn't come home.

- Slept great last night.

We're gonna go attack Mosul

with three battalions of British bicycle brigades,

and hope for the best.

This is where the war gets serious, folks.

- The offensive to take back Mosul is now underway.

This time an estimated 30,000 troops will be needed.

- From the very first day I came into Iraq,

people were talking about the Mosul offensive.

The joke was, oh, Mosul next week, right?

Like Mosul next week, and now it's actually happening.

- The Iraqi military is planning a showdown with ISIS in Mosul,

a battle they hope will push the group out of the country.

It will be an Iraqi military effort.

- In addition to the Iraqi army,

Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Iraqi special forces--

- We're gonna follow behind like we have in the past,

find our happy safe spot, and set up there.

Mosul can be something like my worst fears.

- ISIS has dug in moats, put in oil,

they've dug big holes, burned tires, suicide bombers.

- Yeah.

- Everybody ready? - Yeah.

- [speaking foreign language]

- Jorge, get in the truck and get on the gun.

[explosion]

- I've never been in a full-scale siege battle

like this.

There hasn't been one in quite some time.

I'm nervous and scared about so many things.

This is gonna take so long,

just an unending train of blood and bodies.

[gunfire]

Imagine Stalingrad with GoPros.

- People shouldn't have to kill people.

War shouldn't happen,

but it's inevitable and it's gonna happen.

We need to destroy evil wherever it tries to prevail.

I'll be there for that, to fight, to help,

to make some kind of a difference in this world.

I'm ready to get back overseas,

get back over there where I'm supposed to be

to take the next step.

I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen.

It kind of makes you scared, butterflies in the stomach,

but at the same time, I like that.

That attracts me.

[chanting in foreign language]

- I can't help but think

what if I would have been there with Levi?

You know, that's one of my-- one of my friends,

one of my brothers who would still be here today

if I would have never left.

- I'm still emotional that he's home.

When he was over there,

I got less sleep, worried a lot more.

I just kept hoping and praying every day

I would hear he was okay, he's coming home.

He finally did come home,

and I'm so happy he came back.

And I said "Don't do this to your mother again."

- I can't comfortably sit back here in America

and watch these guys sacrifice their lives.

I should literally be there doing things right now.