reporter: back home in rhode island after months of fighting war abroad, lawton tells cnn that finding a way into the fight against isis was easy. he googled it. during he lunch break i looked up how i could fight them. so i did, you know, some research on that and i find the ypg. reporter: lawton reached out to syria s antigroup on facebook. the page titled lions of rojaba posted pictures of western fighters lost in battle along with a packing list for potential new recruits including sock, zip ties and ballistic eyewear. lawton was quickly given a contact number and told to call when he arrived at the airport in iraq. in all reality it could have been isis. i had no idea. i put my trust in the source and it ended up working out, thank god. reporter: once in syria lawton filmed as he participated in raids like this which he posted to facebook. he took photos. the new york times jennifer