Vet to Ask Congress for Asylum for Iraqi Soldiers Who Save American Lives

— -- Chase Millsap, a former Marine infantry officer, was on his first tour in Iraq when a local soldier saved his life.

Millsap said that a sniper opened fire and the Iraqi soldier reacted, pushing him to the ground safely and charging towards the gunman.

Tomorrow, Millsap will speak to Congress, working to gain asylum for the man he calls "The Captain" and other Iraqi soldiers who helped U.S. troops.

"I'm not advocating that everyone needs to come here but I definitely think that we should be helping to protect these people," Millsap said. "Because in a lot of ways they are our first line of defense. He could go into a room of Iraqis and say 'Chase is a good guy, we can trust him.'"

Millsap said he and "The Captain" have remained close since meeting in 2006.

"We really sort of became like brothers," Millsap told ABC News. "We worked at the same checkpoint, it was my platoon that was there and he had another squad with about 12 soldiers."

In 2014, Millsap received a desperate phone call from his friend, after not hearing from him for some time, who said he had been hit by an IED and was badly injured. He said he was being targeted.

"He had been called out, by name, by ISIS," Millsap said, "and they were going after his kids.

"He said he needed my help, he wanted to come to America," Millsap continued. "He had exhausted all the options he had and he was calling me as a last resort. It couldn't have been worse timing with all the refugees coming out of Syria. Countries were closing their borders."

The Captain, who had fought and stayed in his homeland for as long as he could, eventually fled to Turkey with his family. But when he tried to apply for refugee status in Turkey, he was told that the next appointment was in 2022.

"The U.S. State Department won't even touch him until he becomes a refugee" Millsap said.

He then began the Ronin Refugee Project -- a non-profit providing emergency support to displaced Iraqi and Afghan soldiers, run by U.S. Veterans.

"We want to help, we want to do the right thing, but what we are really trying to do is tell the story, get the information out there," Millsap said.

As for the Captain, Millsap told ABC News that he and his family are struggling in Turkey.

"He got hit by an IED, he has traumatic brain injury, so his ability to do work is very limited," Millsap said. "Ultimately our goal is to get him here or to another allied country. He just can't go back to Iraq, its just not possible he'd probably be killed within days of being there."

In Congress tomorrow, Millsap said he will argue that we have a need to take care of "The Captain," and others like him, not just for moral reasons but because of the "strategic benefits of these relationships."