Pater Kassig is the American hostage currently being held by ISIS terror group. The American's life is in danger as the terror group ISIS has threatened to execute him should the American government continue with airstrikes against them. Peter Kassig, a former military man turned aid worker, felt he needed a sense of higher purpose when he travelled back to Syria to aid the victims of internal war. The 26 year old has lived to help and to love.

Kassig enrolled as United States ranger in 2006. He got deployed to Iraq in 2007. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons afterwards.

Soon after, he returned to the US to study political science. He also began training for the 1500 meter races. He went at this for a while but he felt something was missing.

"I was going to school with kids who look the same, were the same age as me, but we weren't the same," he said in an interview with CNN in 2012. "I wanted more of a challenge, a sense of purpose."

In 2010, Peter Kassig began his certification in emergency medical training. In the next two years that followed, he fell in love, married and divorced. He was depressed. He was heartbroken. He needed a game changer.

So in his spring break, he went out to Beirut to offer help to the wounded Syrians. For the next two weeks, he helped out as much as he could, wherever he could. His eyes were finally open. With a renewed sense of purpose, he travelled back to the US knowing he would soon return.

After finishing a semester in the US, he returned to Lebanon, this time with a plan. Kassig founded SERA (Special Emergency Response Assistance), a non-governmental organization dedicated to offering first assistance to wounded and stranded victims of war. He continued to help out the wounded until he was abducted on October 1, 2013 on his way to Eastern Syria.

"We each get one life and that's it. We get one shot at this and we don't get any do-overs, and for me, it was time to put up or shut up," he said in his interview.