A new campaign ad put out by Rep. Allen West features former U.S. Army Sergeant Robert Delgado recounting how the Florida Republican congressman once saved his life in Iraq.
In the ad, called “Body Armor,” Delgado says that when he left on deployment for Iraq, West promised to get him home to his family.
“My commander was Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. He said, ‘I’m going to make sure that you come home to your wife and your newborn baby,'” Delgado recalls.
“Before we went into Iraq,” Delgado says, “he gave me his body armor.” And it was that body armor, he explains, that ended up saving his life.
Delgado says he was shot one night by an AK-47 wielding combatant firing from a passing vehicle.
“If I hadn’t had that body armor, though, I don’t think I’d really be here,” Delgado explains, “because where it hit was where my lung was.”
“Lt. Col. Allen West saved my life.”
West, who was originally elected in 2010 to represent a safe Republican seat, is currently trying to fend off a challenge by Democrat Patrick Murphy in a newly re-drawn district that is now “evenly split,” according to The New York Times.