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Odie

Mother of Marine Who Fell on Enemy Grenade to Make Son's Case

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Mother of Marine Who Fell on Enemy Grenade to Make Son's Case for Medal of Honor

Thursday, September 18, 2008

 

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The mother of a Marine who witnesses say covered a grenade with his body to save comrades in Iraq plans to appeal to Congress to award her son the nation's highest military honor after learning it was denied by Defense Secretary Robert Gates because of questions about his final act.

 

Rosa Peralta said Thursday she made the decision after a Marine general told her that her son, Sgt. Rafael Peralta, would be awarded the Navy Cross rather than the Medal of Honor because the nomination was tainted by reports he was accidentally shot by a fellow Marine shortly before an insurgent lobbed the grenade.

 

"I'm going to see what can be done, because I'm not satisfied with what they want to do now," she said in Spanish.

 

President Bush singled out the Marine's actions in a 2005 Memorial Day speech, saying Peralta "understood that America faces dangerous enemies, and he knew the sacrifices required to defeat them."

 

"The president spoke of him. So how is this now possible that they do this," Rosa Peralta said.

 

She said she was considering rejecting the Navy Cross, the second-highest award for valor in combat that can be awarded to a Marine. Peralta will be the 24th recipient of the Navy Cross for actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

"I still don't know what I'm going to do," she said.

 

The question about whether to award Peralta the Medal of Honor centers on whether the mortally wounded Marine, who was shot in the head and upper body, could have intentionally reached for the grenade and covered it with his body.

 

"There was conflicting evidence in the case of Sgt. Peralta as to whether he could have pents, Peralta lay mortally wounded on the floor of a house and grabbed a grenade lobbed by fleeing insurgents. His body absorbed the blast and he died immediately.

 

In a rare move, the Marine Corps Thursday released a redacted copy of the Medal of Honor nomination by Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski and a investigative report detailing the "friendly fire" shooting of the sergeant.

 

The report found sufficient evidence existed to believe that Peralta was probably shot by a fellow Marine and that a gunshot wound to the head and injuries to the head from a grenade caused his death.

 

The nomination, which relies on witness statements, forensics, bomb fragment analysis and an autopsy, concluded that although Peralta was shot in the head, he made "a conscious, heroic decision to cover the grenade and minimize the effects he knew it would have on the rest of his Marine team."

 

The nomination details Peralta's actions in the final minutes of his life, with several witnesses recounting how the Marine lay face down and used his arm to pull the grenade to him. It also says a forensic analysis of Peralta's clothing and flak jacket show the grenade was underneath him when it exploded.

 

Peralta, who was assigned to Hawaii's 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, moved to San Diego from Tijuana as a teenager. He was 25.

Edited by Odie

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I agree. If he was accidentally hit by friendly fire and knew, the fact that his last act was to protect his fellow marines, and not resent what had happened to him, shows all the more that he deserved the Medal of Honor.

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I believe there has only been 5 Medal of Honors have been awarded under Bush. I believe should be more in amount of time that we have been fighting this war against terror. I don't this generation is any different from past.

 

When I was a junior sailor my department head at that time made us read from a list of Medal of Honor awardees. Gross amount of awardees received the medial under the same circumstance as Sgt. Rafael Peralta. Bush can award him posthumously...

 

Politics has no business with this award.

Edited by Odie

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i still think it's a bunch of BS that bush isn't going to award a medal of honor to someone jumping on a grenade to save someone's life. thats the whole point of the medal of honor. risking your life to save another in the heat of battle.

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Bush administration has risen the bar for Medal Honor so high that these standards where in place in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam many awardees would never gotten the medal.

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This is certainly a tragic story - instances of "friendly fire" seem particularly tragic in wartime - and apparently friendly fire was a contributing factor to the sergeant's death. It also seems strange since it was the Marine Corp itself that made the recommendations to award the medal that it would be rejected.

 

But still there is an old addage that hard cases make bad law - every soldier that loses his/her life in conflict deserves a medal and their families deserve more than they get; every man/woman that serves in the military deserves more respect and remuneration than they get.

 

But should Sgt Peralta get the award because his case is tragic or his story inspirational? I found this definition of the medal.

The deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades and must have involved risk of life. Incontestable proof of the performance of service is exacted and each recommendation for award of this decoration is considered on the standard of extraordinary merit.

 

This is a description of a similar event in which the aware was given to a Corporal Jason Dunham:

....Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines

 

As to the current case the medical report concluded that Peralta's head wound was so severe it is questionable whether he could have directed his actions; and if he did, is sacrificing a life which you know already to be lost the same as a young man/woman who sacrifices a life not already lost? Nobody will ever know what thoughts he had - and that is unfortunate. If the sergeant was not already mortally wounded and he had intentionally thrown himself on the grenade - would it have been a different sacrifice than a dying man making his last act count. I don't think they're saying that last act didn't count or that he wasn't brave or not worthy of a medal. True in the current conflict only five people have been awarded the Medal of Honor but only 17 have been awarded the Navy Cross - an award that requires an act of extraordinary heroism. I guess I have to ask why recognition of an extraordinary act of heroism by a dying man isn't considered an honor?

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It also seems strange since it was the Marine Corp itself that made the recommendations to award the medal that it would be rejected.

They made the recommendation believing that it would not be rejected by Defense Security. Also the Department of the Navy made the recommendation believing it would not be rejected by Defense Security. He went through a committee that recommend the award believing it would not be rejected by Defense Security. He was spoken by the president himself for his act. Only an autopsy and the strong possibility of "friendly fire" is stopping him from getting the Medal of Honor by the Defense Security.

 

The full title is called Congressional Medal of Honor not Defense Security Medial Honor. Defense Security should not be sole authority on the medal itself, but only the president and Congress.

 

The Official Site of Medal of Honor

 

The Medal of Honor, established by joint resolution of Congress, 12 July 1862 (amended by Act of 9 July 1918 and Act of 25 July 1963) is awarded in the name of Congress to a person who, while a member of the Armed Services, distinguishes himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against any enemy of The United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which The United States is not a belligerent party. The deed performed must have been one of personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his comrades and must have involved risk of life. Incontestable proof of the performance of service is exacted and each recommendation for award of this decoration is considered on the standard of extraordinary merit. Full-text Listings of Medal of Honor Citations The President, in the name of Congress, has awarded more than 3,400 Medals of Honor to our nation's bravest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation in 1861.

 

The site has list of awardees and their citations.

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I think they made the right decision in not granting the CMH.

 

Sure the Marine was brave, and patriotic, and selfless, and everything else you can say. He deserves the Navy Cross, no doubt about it.

 

However, here is the key: His life was going to end anyway because of his other injuries. If he knew it then he lost nothing by jumping on the grenade. If he didn't know it then he was not consciously acting to do something that would end his life.

 

I'm not saying that what happened isn't tragic, but I don't think it reaches CMH proportions.

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He has not done nothing others in the past have done that earn them the Medal of Honor. I hope someday this will get redress. It is too bad his family has to live with this insult that Defense Security gave them.

 

Marines do not by their nature go about saying someone should be awarded the Medal of Honor for nothing. They take the award extremely seriously. He would not have picked and passed through several boards then only get denied the Defense Security.

 

Denfense Security, by his actions, called the Marines that where with him that day lyers, his commanding officer did know what he was doing to recommend the award, and the Marine and Navy boards did not know what they where also recommended the award. This was the first time in history that outside source was involved with process of awarding the Medal of Honor.

 

This is a very hot topic with the military.

 

Only five awardees. It tells me that this administration views this generation courage less than in the past. :clap:

 

Kaneohe Marine Sgt. Peralta deserves Medal of Honor

 

With little if any logic, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates insists on denying the Medal of Honor posthumously to Kaneohe Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who died in Iraq in 2004 by covering an exploding grenade to save fellow Marines. His San Diego family has refused to accept the lesser Navy Cross. Congress should grant the highest military honor to Peralta if a refusal to review the case blocks presidential action.

 

Peralta, a Mexican immigrant who received his green card the day before enlisting in the Marines, is believed to have been shot in the head by "friendly fire" earlier on the day of Nov. 15, 2004. As the insurgents fled the Fallujah building during house-to-house combat, they threw a fragmentation grenade that landed near Peralta and other members of the Kaneohe-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

 

According to the official military account, "without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, Peralta reached out and pulled the grenade to his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast, and shielding his fellow Marines only feet away." Four Marines who witnessed the heroism and whose lives were saved have attested to that account.

Only five war heroes have received the Medal of Honor for their actions in Iraq, and three of those had covered grenades with their bodies to save others. Peralta's fellow Marines, the Navy and the Marine Corps recommended that he join their exclusive ranks.

 

Gates had five people, including a neurosurgeon and two forensic pathologists, review the case. He found "conflicting evidence" about whether Peralta "could have performed his final act" given his mortal head wound, according to Maj. David Nevers, a Marine Corps spokesman. Nevers said "there must be no doubt or margin for error."

 

Peralta was not a U.S. citizen, but that should not have mattered; more than 20 percent of the Medal of Honor recipients have been noncitizens. Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter said the belief that Peralta was struck by friendly fire also had "no bearing on the decision to award the Navy Cross."

 

Any medical doubt that Peralta was alive when the grenade came his way should be removed by the accounts by his fellow Marines. "I am living proof of what Sgt. Peralta did that day," according to Robert Reynolds, who said he saw Peralta snag the live grenade and thrust it against himself, saving the lives of Reynolds and two others.

 

A San Diego-led congressional group asking Bush to review the case has drawn the support of California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Hawaii's congressional delegation, including Sen. Daniel Inouye, who belatedly was presented the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton in 2000 for his World War II heroism.

Edited by Odie

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