Bring Austin Tice home

A home-schooled eagle scout. A champion debater. A Georgetown graduate. A Marine Captain. A freelance journalist in Syria.

This was the life of my friend Austin Tice. At age 16, he enrolled at the University of Houston. At 18, he transferred to Georgetown to study International Relations. Austin joined a debate club I led that year and quickly became one of our better debaters despite no previous experience.

He was arrogant, cocksure and somewhat immature. On a Friday night at a New York City tournament, he led a little revolt of freshman to go look for a swing dancing club instead of staying close to the dorms in which we were staying. Austin and his partner won the tournament the next day.

Austin also had tremendous idealism and a sense of a wonder. On a beautiful Spring day in 2000 we were walking to the dining hall and he remarked, 'don't you ever just stop and think about how amazing it is we get to be young Americans living in this time with these opportunities?”

Austin believed in seeking what he regarded to be the best purpose for his time and talents. After graduating from college, he believed joining the Marines was the most important thing he could do. Years later after serving with distinction in Afghanistan, he felt law school was his next calling.

In 2012, though, after watching the civil war in Syria unfold he put law studies on hold. Austin believed that with his set of abilities and experiences the most important thing he could do was to go to Syria and report the war back to the West. It didn't matter that he had no formal training as a journalist - he hadn't had any as a debater. There was an awful drama playing out and the story was not being told because regular journalists could not get on the ground to report it. Journalists in Syria got killed; journalists in Syria got out. Austin Tice went in.

He spent most of the Summer covertly moving within Syria writing stories which were published by McClatchy newspapers and the Washington Post. He kept a Facebook journal and produced webcasts of his reporting. On Aug. 13, 2012 his Facebook feed went silent. It was soon learned that Austin was captured; it is believed he was captured by a group close to the Asad regime.

And somehow, over three and a half years later, many people believe Austin Tice still is alive. Hope has never been lost for his safe return. Recently, journalist Kevin Patrick Dawes was released after a lengthy captivity in Syria. The release of Dawes and other journalists has renewed optimism that Austin Tice might possible be able to return home soon.

With the resumption of UN sponsored peace talks in Geneva this month, there seems to be another opportunity. There is renewed hope that if our government makes his release a priority in backchannel negotiations Austin's freedom may be secured.

I ask Senators Grassley and Ernst to press the Administration to make and keep the return of Austin Tice a top American priority in the jumbled mess of Syria. If we never leave a soldier with a gun behind, why would we leave behind a Marine who shed his gun for a camera and a Facebook account? Why would we leave behind an American idealist willing to risk it all to report the story nobody else could or would tell in a place where they kill journalists?

' Nate Willems is an attorney from Mount Vernon. More information: www.austinticefamily.com