Saving The Captain | God's World News

Saving The Captain

07/05/2016
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    Chase Millsap (right) and the Captain, in Ankara, Turkey (AP)
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    Green Beret soldier Chase Millsap with the Captain next to a suspected truck bomb after a raid in Iraq. (AP)
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    Former Green Beret soldier Chase Millsap talks about his effort to help the Captain. (AP)
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    Chase Millsap and the Captain (AP)
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    Chase Millsap on patrol during his third and final tour of duty in Iraq. (AP)
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Chase Millsap is all soldier. First Marine. Then Army Green Beret. Three tours in Iraq. He’s ready to get on with civilian life. But there’s one thing he can’t do: leave a comrade behind. For the past two years, Millsap has been trying to gain asylum for a brother in arms he calls simply, “The Captain.”

The Captain is a former Iraqi military officer. He worked with U.S. soldiers against the Islamic State. Now he is a refugee. For safety reasons he wants to be identified only by his former rank.

Currently, The Captain lives in southern Turkey. He is struggling to obtain refugee status—and eventually permanent asylum in the United States. He cannot safely return to Iraq.

“If I go back, I’m sure I die,” the Muslim father of two says during an Associated Press interview.

To help The Captain and others like him, Millsap and fellow military veterans founded the Ronin Refugee Project. Ronin tries to help those who fought alongside Americans in Afghanistan or Iraq. The group hopes to find safe harbor for those it considers friends.

After helping The Captain, Ronin will turn its attention to others. “He’s one of millions that’s stuck in a system that is broken,” Millsap says.

In 2006, Millsap led a group of U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers in Iraq. The Captain was among the Iraqis.

“When I met The Captain, I was unimpressed,” Millsap chuckles.

But after a sniper tried to take his head off during patrol, Millsap became one of The Captain’s biggest fans.

“He quickly pushed me down and ran towards the gunfire and because of that saved my life,” Millsap recalls. “That is when I truly realized that this guy’s OK.”

Over the years, the two kept in touch. After IS supporters began hunting him, The Captain and his family fled to Turkey.

Now The Captain and Millsap check in by Skype once a week. During a recent call, The Captain praised Ronin Refugee Project for not forgetting him.

“I feel like you are my family. You are my brother. You and the other group of Marines are really gentlemen,” he says before his voice breaks.

U.N. officials won’t say how long The Captain will have to wait for a decision about refugee status—a month? A year?

The Ronin Refugee Project website credits “foreign warrior-brothers” like The Captain with saving U.S. lives. Millsap and others just want to return the favor.