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
percy interviewed him. it all captures the life in stark contrast to the picturesque peace of his hometown in rhode island. according to a recent study joining the militia is something more than 100 other americans and many europeans have done in the past year alone. we just hang out in here. reporter: among the first was army veteran matson from wisconsin who helped recruit lawton and others through social media. i ve had x-military from eastern europe, western europe, canada, united states, australia, you name it, they ve been asking. reporter: cnn spoke with matson in syria last year just months later lawton joined in, describing the group as a budge of friends with guns. more than an organized army. a lot of people. i think might have been running away from something. what we all had in common was we all just wanted to fight isis. reporter: lawton says he witness at the time number of westerners fighting isis on the battlefield growing by the month but the number of isi
ballistic eye wear. in all reality it could have been isis. i had no idea. you can t really tell. i put my trust in this 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. when the new york times interviewed him it all captures a life in stark contrast to the picturesque peace of his hometown in rhode island. according to a recent study, joining the militia is something more than 100 other americans and many europeans have done in the past year alone. we just hang out in here. reporter: among the first was army veteran jordan matson from wisconsin who helped recruit lawton and others through social media. i ve had ex-military from eastern europe, western europe, canada, the united states, australia. you name it, they ve been asking. cnn spoke with matson in syria last year just months later lawton joined in
describing the group as a bunch of friends with guns. more than an organized army. a lot of people i think might have been running away from something. what we all had in common was we all just wanted to fight isis. reporter: lawton says he witnessed the number of westerners fighting isis on the battlefield growing by the month. but the number of isis fighters they face is much larger than he ever imagined. it s not just a couple of pockets of terrorists. it s a huge army. it s important that they be stopped. reporter: going on your own to stop them however is not recommended. the justice department stopped short of saying it was against the law but added, quote, regardless of the legality, it is a bad idea and we strongly discourage it. lawton says food supplies and support in syria were scarce. but the only reason he returned home to these quiet manicured streets was because he wasn t able to fight more. there s a lull in the fighting at that time. and we were really gettin