Ryan O'Leary, a soldier in the Iowa National Guard, returned to Iraq to help train the Kurdish army of northern Iraq to battle the the Islamic State terrorist group. VPC
DES MOINES, Iowa — Ryan O'Leary 's parents and girlfriend have told him what he's doing is crazy. So have the FBI and the U.S. State Department .
He understands their point.
But the Iowa soldier returned to Iraq last month, headed to war for the third time. The first two times, he served with the Iowa National Guard, with authority from the Army. This time, he's volunteering on his own to help train the Kurdish army of northern Iraq to battle the Islamic State, the ferocious terrorist group that's also known ISIL or ISIS.
"ISIS isn't just a fight for them, it's a fight for all of us," he said. "We need to help them out, and we're not doing it. … The only thing I'm getting out of it is knowing that I'm helping make change in a country that deserves it and for a people that deserve it."
O'Leary, 28, is a National Guard corporal who served in Iraq in 2007-08 and in Afghanistan in 2010-11. In an interview via Skype this week, he explained plans to help train members of the Peshmerga , which is the Kurdish army.
The FBI and the State Department have said what he's doing is legal, but they've urged him to consider the danger. They worry he could be kidnapped, used as a hostage or killed. O'Leary said he feels relatively safe amid his new Kurdish comrades.
"If it happens, at least I died doing something I believed in," he said in an interview last month at his West Des Moines apartment, two days before he left. "It's better than sitting here on the couch watching news feeds of Christians getting killed and Muslims getting killed for no reason."
Kurdish officials have discouraged foreign fighters from joining the Peshmerga, but some veterans of Western forces reportedly have done so anyway. O'Leary said he's seen a few dozen of them, mostly Americans and Brits. Peshmerga units are using the foreigners mainly as instructors, not as direct combat soldiers, he said.
"They're really not wanting to put Westerners in the danger zones," he said this week. "I didn't come over here just to kill people. I mainly came over to ensure the Peshmerga were getting the proper training."
He said he's been helping provide some medical services among refugees, while awaiting security clearance to begin working with recruits on rifle marksmanship, first aid and other basic skills. His only compensation has been a cot, food, tea and cigarettes, he said.
FBI HAS CONCERNS
O'Leary said he made contact with the Peshmerga a few months ago through a Kurdish friend who served as a translator for the Iowa National Guard in Iraq. The former translator introduced him via Facebook with a British veteran who was helping train a Kurdish unit, he said. The British veteran helped him figure out how to link up with the Kurdish army in a town about 200 miles northeast of Baghdad.
American warplanes have dropped bombs on Islamic State militants, but the U.S. has not committed ground forces. O'Leary said he couldn't sit on the sidelines any longer. The Kurds have been stalwart U.S. allies over the decades, but Americans have been inconsistent friends, he said.
After thinking it over for a couple of months, he paid $1,061 for a one-way ticket to Iraq and started packing his duffel bags.
O'Leary's family has been communicating with him mainly via Facebook. "I'm not sure exactly what he's up to. He says it's hot, dirty and loud there," his father said. "Obviously, there's almost anywhere else in the world we'd rather have him go to. But he just kind of got it in his head that's what he wanted to do."
The Register is not identifying O'Leary's family or specifying where he grew up because of concerns raised by federal officials. The FBI is aware of O'Leary's travels, and an agent told the Register that authorities don't want to see his family endangered by Islamic State sympathizers in the U.S.
MILITARY STATUS IN JEOPARDY
O'Leary joined the Iowa National Guard in 2004 and transferred in 2011 to the National Guard in Louisiana, where his then-wife was from. He had hoped to transfer back to the Iowa Guard.
He's proud to have served with the Iowa Guard in volatile regions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He treasures deployment photos of himself with his buddies. In one picture, he's smiling in front of a blasted wall, where aTaliban shell smashed into U.S. Army barracks in eastern Afghanistan.
But in returning to Iraq last month, he walked away from the U.S. military. He stripped all insignia off his camouflage uniforms before packing them into two green duffel bags. He attached Kurdish patches after he arrived in Iraq. He also brought the sturdy tan boots the U.S. Army issued him for his last trip to the country.
He packed $600 worth of medical supplies, which his Kurdish friend said were needed. The supplies included bandages, tourniquets and packets of "Quik-Clot" powder to stanch bleeding from gunshot wounds. "Hopefully, we won't have to use too much of that," he said.
A military spokesman confirmed that O'Leary is still a part-time member of the Louisiana National Guard. O'Leary said he told some friends of his plans but did not notify his superiors. The next time he's due to participate in training, he'll probably be declared absent without leave, he said.
VA specialists have helped him deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he said led him to be sent home early from his Iraq deployment seven years ago. The PTSD is easing, he said, but it still sometimes makes him irritable and sleepless. He worries his experiences in Kurdistan could inflame the condition, and he won't have insurance coverage for treatment once he returns.
Representatives of the Kurdistan government did not respond to requests for comment. A U.S. State Department spokeswoman sent a statement cautioning against what O'Leary is doing.
"U.S. citizens are warned against all but essential travel to Iraq," the department said. "The U.S. government does not support U.S. citizens traveling to Iraq to fight against ISIS."
O'Leary said he'll likely stay at least a year.
"The only way I'd come back home right now would be if the United States and NATO and the other U.N. countries actually started giving aid directly to Kurdistan," he said.
National Guardsman Ryan O'Leary heads back to Iraq on an unauthorized quest to help fight ISIS. Tony Leys/The Register
Brett Molina
