A San Diego lawmaker is reviving the push to award the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a U.S. Marine who is said to have sacrificed his life by falling on a grenade to save fellow troops during the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004.
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The legislation, introduced by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa on May 21, asks Congress to waive the statutory time limit on the award and allow President Donald Trump to give Peralta the nation’s highest military honor for his acts during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society — a nonprofit established in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower to preserve the history of the nation’s highest military honor — an individual must be recommended for the Medal of Honor within three years of their valorous action, and the medal must be presented within five years. If it is not, Congress must pass a law waiving the time limits.
“Sgt. Rafael Peralta embodied the highest ideals of indomitable courage and steadfast devotion to his fellow Marines and to our great country,” Issa said in a statement. “Valor never expires, and Congress has a solemn obligation to ensure that acts of valor of this magnitude receive the recognition they deserve — regardless of administrative delay or statutory limitations.”
Born in Mexico City in 1979, Sgt. Peralta was brought to the United States as a child by his parents. A graduate of San Diego’s Morse High School, he enlisted in the Marines the day he received his green card in the mail.
While clearing buildings on Nov. 15, 2004, Peralta’s team of “Lava Dogs” of A Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, based in Hawaii, was assailed by a hail of bullets. He fell mortally wounded to the floor as an enemy combatant threw a grenade near his head, Issa’s legislation reads.
Peralta snatched the explosive close to his body, absorbing “the blast and shielding nearby Marines from death or serious bodily harm,” according to the legislation.
He is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.
For his actions, Peralta was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and a Combat Action Ribbon. An Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer homeported in Yokosuka, Japan, was named in his honor.
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Additionally, San Diego politicians have lobbied for Peralta to receive the Medal of Honor. A panel convened by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates determined Peralta was too injured from the gunshot wound to have acted consciously in covering the grenade, and the panel instead awarded the Marine the Navy Cross — the military branch’s second-highest honor.
A congressional delegation and two U.S. senators asked the Navy secretary to reopen the Medal of Honor nomination of Peralta in 2012 after new video and audio evidence of the Marine’s actions emerged. That effort also failed.
The Department of Defense has since given “favorable determinations” that affirm Peralta’s “actions merit consideration for the Medal of Honor,” according to Issa’s office.
“Marines who survived that room in Fallujah have spent decades bearing witness to Sergeant Peralta’s valor,” Issa said. “This bill ensures their testimony is heard and that America honors a Marine who gave his last full measure for his brothers and for the nation he loved.”
Rep. Juan Vargas, a San Diego Democrat said that the country has a duty to recognize the sacrifice Peralta made.
“His heroism, selflessness, and sacrifice saved the lives of his fellow Marines around him,” Vargas said. “We will never forget Sgt. Peralta and his legacy.”
If approved by Congress, the legislation would be sent to the president’s desk for his signature. Earlier this year, Escondido war hero Royce Williams was given the Medal of Honor after Issa and others lobbied for him to receive the recognition decades after the retired Navy fighter pilot shot down four Soviet MiG aircraft in 1952.
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