The Navy Cross is nothing to spit at, a very high medal indeed. The Medal of Honor is such a unique medal that so few get, I do not want to speak for the committee who makes this decision. I’m sure they get many applications. This young man is a hero, no question, but the decision of being a MOH has very high criteria.
I am glad to seen FOX News hitting this hard. I wasn’t there but those who were say he deserves the Medal of Honor. I stand by those people.
I read the whole story about this the other day, to tell the truth his falling on the grenade was most likely an accident. The doctor said the bullet to the head killed him instantly. But the navy cross is a great medal, the man had bronze one’s.
I agree with your point here and suggest that the evidence supports this as a very real possibility. Award of the Medal of Honor requires a conscious act of valor above and beyond the call of duty with a full understanding of the risks involved. For this reason, I believe that Gates made the right call, though it was a tough one.
I also believe that there have been far too few awards of the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, and the Navy Cross. In an honest effort to maintain the integrity of these awards, the Defense Department has demanded a standard of proof that is just too high to fit within the natural confusion that surrounds combat. This is especially true in the Army, who have awarded far too few of these high honors (the Army behaves quite differently for lower valor awards, passing out more than they should).
I know that this may seem inconsistent on my part, but in Peralta's case, with the evidence on the table, I don't think that Gates could ignore it.
Unfortunately for the integrity of the Medal of Honor, I predict that SGT Peralta will receive the Medal of Honor. He belongs to a politically favored group, recend immigrants, and the recent history of the Medal of Honor makes it quite clear that the rules are indeed different for politcally favored groups. The recent history are the retroactive awards for WWII and Korea that have been given to African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Americans.
“By the time I left Vietnam, I had developed reflexes to noises that could be exploding shells. If I heard something that might be an incoming round, my feet would start moving to the bunker while my brain determined if it was incoming or outgoing.”
Strange comment.....I had no confusion whatever after the first incoming went off.......the incoming vs outgoing noise is SOOOO distinct that it makes the above quote suspect. From the time you hear your first incoming mortar.RPG/whatever detonation onward, there is no confusion. None. Zero.
That said, I cannot comment on the MOH matter, since I was not there. I only know that if his buddies want him remembered well, and are embellishing to do so, I hope they know that this would be quite different from downed pilots wingmen declaring “good chute” when there was none, in order for the wife of the pilot who went in to continue to receive his full pay......an MOH is different, IMO....
However — if more than one of his fellow Marines said they SAW him reach out and pull the grenade toward his body — then that trumps the “judgment” of the ONE examining physician who disagreed with the opinion of the others.....
Men are capable of doing unbelievable acts while seemingly mortally wounded...
An NVA sapper who has his entire jaw shot away and dangling - continued to run back and forth before the wire in confused panic until a Marine took pity at the spectacle and delivered a head shot to end it.
Peralta’s mother was told long ago that the process had been done and her son was recommended for the Medal of Honor. All that was needed was for the highest office to OK it. Now Gates seems to contradict what those on the ground have said all along. And the grenade was plumb under the man and couldn’t have gotten there other than he pulled it under. He did not fall on it when wounded.
As to Rafael being from Mexico. If ever we were to thank God for an immigrant(legal or illegal), it was this young man. Check back and see what he had on the walls of his bedroom, he was a patriot and appreciated what he was getting in the USA and I don’t mean money. To join the Corps the moment he got his green card says a lot. Check out also what his friends said of him and drop any denigration of his background. He was one with us.
I say the President should override Gates’ numb sense and award the medal.