Thread: Fallen Marine receives 2nd highest award...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/...ath_by_grenade

SAN DIEGO - A Marine sergeant singled out by President Bush for throwing his body on a grenade to save his comrades in Iraq will receive the prestigious Navy Cross rather than the nation's highest military award, military officials said. ADVERTISEMENT



The family of Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was posthumously nominated for the nation's highest military honor, told the North County Times of Escondido, Calif., they were disappointed he was not receiving the Medal of Honor.

"I don't understand why if the president has been talking about him," his mother, Rosa Peralta, told the newspaper, which was the first to report the bestowing of the Navy Cross.

Rosa Peralta said she was informed during a meeting with Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski that a committee could not agree on awarding the Medal of Honor to her son, who Marine Corps officials say was first wounded by friendly fire. She said the general mentioned the friendly fire aspect as part of her son's death during the discussion.

Marine Corps spokesman Mike Alvarez confirmed the meeting, saying only that it was a personal briefing between Natonski and Rosa Peralta to inform her that the secretary of the Navy would award the Navy Cross posthumously for extraordinary heroism.

The Navy Cross is the second highest honor for combat heroism a Marine can receive.

The secretary of the Navy's public affairs office in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return an after-hours telephone call Wednesday seeking comment.

Headquarters Marine Corps spokesman Maj. David Nevers told The Associated Press that the Navy Cross for Peralta "is not bestowed lightly."

Nevers said only 23 sailors and Marines out of the thousands who have served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have received the Navy Cross.

"The awarding of a medals of valor is a methodical process and carefully conducted to ensure the sacrifice and service of our Marines and sailors is appropriately honored," he said.

Peralta was shot several times in the face and body during a house-to-house search in Fallujah on Nov. 15, 2004, during some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

According to a report by a Marine combat photographer who witnessed the act, Peralta lay wounded on the floor of a house and grabbed a grenade that had been lobbed by an insurgent. He absorbed the blast with his body, dying instantly.

In 2005, Natonski, then-commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, ordered an investigation to determine the source of a bullet fragment recovered from Peralta's body.

"Following multiple and exhaustive reviews, the evidence supports the finding that Peralta was likely hit by 'friendly fire,'" the Marine Corps said Wednesday in a press release. "This finding had no bearing on the decision to award the Navy Cross medal."

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

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


What do you guys think? I know there are rules and regulations about awards and such, but do you think Peralta's actions warranted more than a Navy Cross?

I am not up to speed on the ins and outs of the MOH being awarded, but have spent a period of time reviewing citations and seen it awarded for less than jumping on a grenade to save your fellow Devil Dogs.

Funny thing.

Yeah, he most definitely deserves the MOH. But, like everything else in this country, the rich control everything that directly, or indirectly, affects them in a negative way and don't care about anything else. The media controls just about everything else. And, for the real small stuff, the rich have created some ridiculous laws to prevent us little guys from making our own decisions about that.

That's why I give up. I hibernate in my apt, play video games, eat and sleep.

The circumstances dictate that he should have received the MOH posthumously. Simple fact. But, of course, there is going to be a question as to whether he had a habit of pissin' in people's cheerios on a regular basis. If that's the case, then they will turn around and say, 'Well, it was an honorable thing to do, and, yeah, he saved a bunch of Marines from death and/or serious injury, but, he didn't pet our ego's the way we wanted, and threatened our jobs with his truths and that just won't do. So, while we're glad he did it, he pissed us off too much to give him such a high award, even though he is dead now.'

Things like this will be the downfall of our society. Maybe not in a year, a decade or a century. But, sure as Christ made little green apples, the schizophrenic politics of this country will be its downfall.

You know, it's kinda like a conversation I had with someone the other day.

We were talking about how and what should be done about the "War on Terrorism." Bottom line was, these people that we are fighting, they don't have anywhere near the ideals that we have in this country or, for that matter, most "civilized" countries (as opposed to "third world" countries) around the world share. The ones that preach that Islam is a peaceful religion, are actually the ones being pushed around by the higher Islamic leadership. Who, by the way, you never see stay in a fight themselves, they always run and leave the fighting to the lowbies. Say whatever you want about how no leadership should ever get into a fight cause they're the leadership, but, don't you think it's funny how they run all over the world to avoid justice and yet, they never stop planning attacks? And at the same time, they have an extremely large financial base to keep them entertained and happy and all the ones that die, don't have two pennies to their name?

But, I digress.

These radical extremist ( how ever you called them) are not really Muslim.I was watching a show on military channel and the Muslims do not agree with killing themself for 72 virgins.Man I wish I can find that clip about what I am talking about.Whatever this happened twice a Navy Seal and I think another in Recon.Both did receive the Medal of Honor.And both where throwing there selves in front of a nade.But if Al-Quada like to kill them selves to hurt innocent civilans well they wont get 72 virgins at all.

I am not sure how accurate the books are but Islam is just another religion to me.It is that the retards that want to put C4 on family member,animals, and there selves are just people grown in the wrong place or they just don't have a life.