Joe Robinson Joe Robinson (left) and other western volunteers capture an ISIS flag in Syria.
During the first three days of the siege, 23 suicide bombers attacked the school. The soldiers on guard hardly slept for 72 hours. They were on high alert and, besides, it was hard to relax with the pounding sound of coalition air strikes hitting targets all around.
Robinson's job was to pick out suicide bombers who tried to blend in with civilian crowds as they ran towards the building.
The former British army soldier turned labourer and landscape gardener spent a month defending the tallest building in Sarrin - a strategic stronghold, which had been used as a Sharia court under ISIS control. Prisoners and sex slaves had slept there recently.
The 22-year-old (now 23) from Accrington, Lancashire, was a long way from home.