ORLANDO — A former Marine believed so strongly in the war against the Islamic State group that he secretly traveled to Syria, where he was killed this month while fighting for a Kurdish militia group.
David Taylor, a 25-year-old former Florida resident, had kept his plans to join the Kurdish group a secret from his family and only told a high school friend, whom he swore to secrecy. Taylor’s father said Tuesday that he didn’t even know of his son’s plans until after he had arrived in Syria last spring and was training with the group known as YPG.
‘‘I got an e-mail and he said, ‘Pops, don’t worry. I’m with the YPG,’ ’’ David Taylor Sr. said from his West Virginia home. ‘‘He said, ‘I’m doing the right thing. It’s for their freedom.’ ’’
Taylor Sr. said that when his son set his mind on something, he did it.
‘‘There was no middle ground. He wasn’t wishy-washy,’’ the father said.
A Kurdish militia group released a video saying Taylor was ‘‘martyred fighting ISIS’ barbarism’’ on July 16.
The US State Department said in a statement that it was aware of reports of a US citizen being killed while fighting in Syria but offered no further comment.
Taylor’s father said the family was told about the death last weekend by a US consular official.
Taylor’s high school friend e-mailed the father after he learned of the death. The friend said Taylor told him during a visit to St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., last February that he believed the Islamic State group needed to be stopped.
‘‘One night he got drunk and told me of the atrocities he had witnessed in the Middle East during his time in the Marine Corps,’’ the friend, Alex Cintron, wrote in an e-mail to Taylor’s parents.
‘‘He said to the effect that ‘Isis was the bane of modern existence and needed to be stopped before they destroy any more lives and priceless works of human achieve-ment,’ ’’ Cintron said in the e-mail.
Cintron said in the e-mail that Taylor died from an improvised explosive device. The YPG video offered no details on how Taylor died.
associated press
