Posted on 05/30/2010 4:36:59 AM PDT by don-o
“I didn’t know anything about medals,” Peralta told me. But she said that the idea that her son would be remembered as a national hero slowly became a source of comfort to her. The Peralta family, which includes Rafael’s three siblings, moved to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, when Rafael was a teenager, and he joined the Marines the first moment he could legally do so, on the same morning he got his green card. Though the Peralta parents spoke little English and felt like foreigners in Southern California, Rafael “really loved this country” and loved being a Marine, Peralta told me. As the months after his death wore on, she began to look forward to the day when she would receive the Medal of Honor on his behalf.
But that day never came. Almost four years later, on Sept. 17, 2008, Peralta was summoned to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where Lieut. Gen. Richard F. Natonski informed her of the Pentagon’s decision: Rafael Peralta would not be awarded the Medal of Honor after all. Instead he would receive the Navy Cross, the second-highest American military decoration that can be awarded to a Marine.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Not according to the article. Mom shouldn't have been told he'd been submitted for the MOH, but the DOD does reconsider decoration submissions. They recently approved one for a Civil War action, 147 years later.
The DSC citation says he grabbed the grenade, and so did the MOH citation that wasn't approved. Sound like MOH action to me.
Highest dec I got was an AF Commendation medal, but I never hugged a grenade, either.
WRM, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)
I can't recall ever meeting an immigrant on active duty whose loyalty was to any other nation, which was not always true of all the native-born citizens I knew on active duty.
Navy Cross.
Mom shouldn't have been told he'd been submitted for the MOH,
Agree, but to act like she was wronged by a Navy Cross is BS.
Sound like MOH action to me.
Could easily have been, but got downgraded. Happens all the time.
Yep, and they recently upgraded one from 147 years ago. What changed on that one? Why that one, and not this one?
“Agree, but to act like she was wronged by a Navy Cross is BS.”
No, I don't think so. It is a mom fighting the only fight she has left for her son, who is dead. Rational? Maybe not, but definitely understandable. So is the family and friends of the the Civil War soldier keeping up on a MOH for their guy.
Both politicizing the situation.
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