When Levi J. Shirley was growing up, he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the U.S. military, his mother said. His father, Russell, had served three tours with the Army in Vietnam, and Levi became “obsessed” with joining the Marine Corps. The younger Shirley, however, had bad eyesight. He trained with other potential recruits but was disqualified even after having surgery, said his mother, Susan.
Instead, Shirley, 25, last year joined other Westerners in traveling to the Middle East to fight Islamic State militants in Syria with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). He returned to the United States months later and vowed never to go back, but he vanished with little notice again in January and resurfaced in Syria, his mother said.
On Thursday, the YPG announced that Shirley was killed July 14 in a battle with the Islamic State. His mother confirmed his death, but said she knew little beyond what the YPG announced.
“He’s not usually what you would first think of as a fighter,” Susan Shirley said. “He’s not someone who would strike out an offensive on someone. But he also has a strong sense of justice and sticking up for the underdog, and the Kurds are about as underdog as you can get right now.”
What motivated Shirley remains something of a mystery. A Brit who uses the pseudonym Macer Gifford said he befriended Shirley in the YPG last year and was struck by his love for the Marine Corps and knowledge of American military history. Shirley, he said, often talked about how he had served two years in the Marines before he was hit by a car and discharged.
But that wasn’t the case. In addition to his mother’s account, Marine officials said they have no record of him serving.
Informed of that, Gifford called it “quite touching.” Shirley, he said, “was a good man” who appears to have “wanted it to be true so much,” Gifford said.
“Still soaking this up,” Gifford said in a private Twitter message. “That truth has added level of depth to him. The blunt Marine was so much more.”
Gifford traveling to Syria twice to join the YPG raises questions about how easy it remains to travel to the country as foreign fighters continue to move there to join the Islamic State. The State Department, asked to comment on his case, said they were aware of it but “do not have any additional information to share.”
In a video released Thursday by the YPG, Shirley is shown standing on a hill in olive-green fatigues. He introduces himself as Jack, and says he traveled to Syria to do his part to stop the Islamic State, he said.
“They’re my definition of pure evil,” he said. “I don’t think good people in a society can stick other people inside of a cage and set them on fire — so, yeah, I came here to stop that.”
The YPG said in a statement posted on Facebook that Shirley fought under the pseudonym Hevale Agir. Westerners often take nom de guerres while fighting alongside the YPG, with most names beginning with “heval,” or friend. Shirley said in the video released Thursday that “Agir” means fire.
“Hevale Agir was known for his discipline and sense of responsibility,” the YPG statement said. “His style and personality were a source of strength, motivation, and morale for his friends. In the fight, Hevale Agir was known and respected as a brave and altruistic person.”
Shirley’s last fight was the battle to take back Manbij, the YPG said. The city in northern Syria is known as a hub for foreign fighters looking to join the Islamic State, and a primary focus for the U.S.-led military coalition, which provides air support and intelligence to local ground forces.
Earlier this year, Shirley fought to defend the Syrian cities of Kobane and Cizire from militants and took part last year in the fight to take back Al-Qamishli, a city in northeastern Syria near the Turkish border, the YPG said.
In a statement released through the YPG, Gifford recalled meeting Shirley in the Syrian town of Tel Tamar. The American had been in the country only a few weeks, and had just stood his ground in a firefight with the Islamic State.
“His unit had come under a brutal and sustained night attack by (Islamic State) fighters,” Gifford recalled. “Agir and his comrades had the higher ground so after a long night 12 … lay dead and only one Kurdish fighter was slightly wounded. It was a brutal introduction to the International Volunteers in Syria, but it was exactly what Agir wanted. He came to fight and participate in the destruction of one of the most vicious ideologies of hate this world has ever seen.”
Shirley liked to compare his participation in the fight against the Islamic State to that of the Eagle Squadrons, groups of American pilots who made their way to Britain before the United States joined World War II to join the Royal Air Force, Gifford said.
“The American Eagles weren’t content to sit out the war and watch the facists roll over Europe,” Gifford said. “In the same spirit, Agir couldn’t stay at home and watch while (the Islamic State) raped and murdered their way across Syria.”
Images of Americans taken in Tel Tamar last year by photographer Uygar Onder Simsek include Shirley, who is identified by his Kurdish nom de guerre. The photographer identified him as a former Marine.
Shirley’s mother said that her son was born in Nevada, and graduated from high school 2010 in Arvada. Growing up, he was prone to becoming intensely interested in a single hobby or subject, but “only for a time” before discarding it for another, she said.
When Shirley returned from Syria last year, he told family members he “had enough fighting for two lifetimes,” his mother said. He began talking about becoming an emergency medical technician and moved to Texas, but disappeared for months and reached out to his sister, Caitlin, 23, from Syria a few months ago.
“After he came back the first time we started to get really close and just talked about everything,” Kate, his sister, said. “I always kind of assumed that I’d get to make up for us not being close as kids. I just assumed that we’d have decades and decades to get to be better friends, and I’m really sad that we didn’t. But I know he knows that I’m proud of him and, you know, he was a really good big brother.”
Russell Shirley served three tours in Vietnam. When his son didn’t get into the Marines, his father was relieved. He was not so relieved when his son decided to go anyway. Russell Shirley said he wouldn’t have touched the war his son went to fight with a 10-foot pole, but his son was brave. He said when his son returned the first time they went out to dinner and got to talk to each other, veteran to veteran, and share stories about their service.
Shirley’s mother was suspicious of his move to Texas because she knew that it was hard for people who have fought in a war to readjust when they get back home.
“He was pretty evasive when he left, so I kind of thought something was up,” his mother said of his move to Texas. “I wasn’t surprised when something was up. I think he thought he could get down there and back without worrying anyone.”
At least one other American, Keith Broomfield, has been killed while fighting against the Islamic State with local ground forces.
A Canadian, John Gallagher, also was killed last summer fighting against the militants, prompting people to line the “Highway of Heroes” in tribute as his remains were repatriated.
The Shirley family hopes to bring their loved one’s remains, perhaps through Turkey, but the plan was not clear Thursday.
“We’re kind of taking it one day at a time, really,” his mother said.
