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Rhea County man who went to Iraq to fight ISIS is ready to come home

Aaron Core left the U.S. military in 2012, but in February of this year traveled to fight ISIS in Iraq with Kurdish Peshmerga troops. Photo contributed by Aaron Core
Aaron Core left the U.S. military in 2012, but in February of this year traveled to fight ISIS in Iraq with Kurdish Peshmerga troops. Photo contributed by Aaron Core Aaron Core left the U.S. military in 2012, but in February of this year traveled to fight ISIS in Iraq with Kurdish Peshmerga troops. Photo contributed by Aaron Core

By Evan Hoopfer 3 min read

A Rhea County man who volunteered to go to Iraq is ready to come home.

photo Aaron Core left the U.S. military in 2012, but in February of this year traveled to fight ISIS in Iraq with Kurdish Peshmerga troops. Photo contributed by Aaron Core
photo Aaron Core left the U.S. military in 2012, but in February of this year traveled to fight ISIS in Iraq with Kurdish Peshmerga troops. Photo contributed by Aaron Core

Aaron Core, who was profiled in May in the Times Free Press, has been in Iraq since February. He volunteered to travel overseas to help fight ISIS along side Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Core was infuriated America wasn’t doing more to combat the terror group.

“I got to come home at some point,” Core said in an email interview.

Because he’s in Iraq in a volunteer capacity, he doesn’t have enough funds to get back on his own. A Go Fund Me page was started to try and get him home with a goal of $5,000. It currently has $450. He said it cost about $1,700 to get over to Iraq, and the price of plane tickets varies depending on the day.

Core was previously in the U.S. Army and did a tour in Iraq in 2009 to 2010. He left the military in 2012 but wanted to come back and fight. He heard of other soldiers in his situation joining the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and decided to fly overseas to volunteer.