R.I.P.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Mother to ask Congress to award son Medal of Honor
Courtesy of Yahoo News
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, AP Military Affairs Writer
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 performed his final acts given the nature of his injuries," said Capt. Beci Brenton, spokeswoman for Navy Secretary Donald Winter.
The initial recommendation that he receive the Medal of Honor went through reviews by the Marine Corps, U.S. Central Command, the Department of the Navy and ultimately up to Defense Secretary Gates, Brenton said.
After all the evidence was scrutinized, officials determined that it "did not meet the exact standard necessary to support the Medal of Honor," she said.
But Rosa Peralta said she was led to believe her son would get the Medal of Honor in a November 2007 telephone call from an undersecretary of the Navy, who she says told her the nomination was to be forwarded to the White House.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said there was a June 2007 Navy recommendation for the Medal of Honor, but it never went to the White House because Gates didn't approve it.
He said that because there was some contradictory evidence, Gates instead took the extra step of asking five other individuals to review the case — a former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, a Medal of Honor recipient, a civilian neurosurgeon who is retired from the military and two forensic pathologists who also are military retirees.
The five were given medical reports that had not been available in the initial review. They thoroughly reviewed the case again, including inspecting the evidence and re-enacting the event, Whitman said.
"Each independently recommended to the secretary that the evidence did not support the award of Medal of Honor," he said.
Gates made his decision this month.
A Medal of Honor nomination is typically made by the military, approved by the Department of Defense and conferred by the president. But a nomination can also be made through a special act of Congress and then bestowed by the president on behalf of Congress.
The Medal of Honor comes with about $1,000 a month special pension in addition to other military pensions.
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 witness accounts, 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 an 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.
___
Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington, D.C., and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Some upset Marine sergeant won't receive Medal of Honor
Courtesy of USA Today
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A rare decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to reject a Marine Corps recommendation that one of its heroes receive the Medal of Honor has angered Marines who say Sgt. Rafael Peralta sacrificed his life to save theirs.
Peralta's family was notified of the decision Wednesday by Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, a top Marine Corps commander. Col. David Lapan, a Marine spokesman, said he was unaware of any recent award nomination that was denied in this way.
A Gates-appointed panel unanimously concluded that the report on Peralta's action did not meet the standard of "no margin of doubt or possibility of error," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The argument about whether to award Peralta the nation's highest military honor centers on whether a mortally wounded Marine could have intentionally reached for the grenade after suffering a serious head wound.
For his actions during a Nov. 15, 2004, firefight in Fallujah, Iraq, Peralta will receive the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor. The citation said Peralta, 25, covered a live grenade thrown by insurgents.
"I don't want that medal," Peralta's mother, Rosa, said Wednesday. "I won't accept it. It doesn't seem fair to me."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Virginia | Afghanistan | Iraq | Mexico | Army | Marines | Fallujah | Marine Corps | Defense Secretary Robert Gates | Norfolk | Bryan Whitman | Noah | Medal of Honor | Sophia | Sienna |Navy Cross | Robert Reynolds | Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski | Lapan | Sgt. Rafael Peralta
The decision is "almost like somebody called me a liar," said Marine Sgt. Nicholas Jones, 25, who was with Peralta that day. Jones, a recruiter, said Peralta's actions have become part of Marine Corps lore, as drill sergeants and officer-candidate instructors repeat it to new Marines. "His name is definitely synonymous with valor," said Jones, who was wounded by the grenade blast.
"I know for a fact that I would have been killed … and that my daughter, Sophia, our new baby, Sienna, would not be here or coming into the world. And that my son, Noah, would have grown up without knowing his dad," said Robert Reynolds, 31, a corrections officer and former Marine who was with Peralta that day.
In a Marine Corps investigation of the attack, Natonski said, "I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt" that the gravely wounded Peralta covered the grenade.
Natonski, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., appeared disappointed by the news he brought the family, said David Donald, Rosa Peralta's son-in-law. "He felt like Rafael deserved the Medal of Honor," Donald said.
Peralta's heroism has become Marine Corps legend, Lapan says. He said those closest to Peralta are likely to be upset by the decision, while others will see the Navy Cross award — given to only 17 other Marines in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts — as quite an honor.
Peralta had been shot in the head before he covered the grenade, a Marine investigation said. The report concluded he was hit by a ricochet that likely came from the gun of another Marine while they were clearing insurgents from a local home.
After he was wounded, the report said, Peralta scooped an insurgent grenade under his body, absorbed the blast and died, according to five of the Marines who were with Peralta during the firefight.
Gates appointed a five-member panel led by retired Lt. Gen. John Vines, the former commander of multi-national forces in Iraq, to reinvestigate reports of the battle. The panel also included a Medal of Honor recipient, a retired military neurosurgeon and two civilian forensic pathologists, Whitman said. He declined to provide their names.
After the panel made its recommendation, Gates made his decision last week, Whitman said. He declined to provide any explanation other than the facts did not meet the standard for a Medal of Honor.
Five men have been awarded the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq, one for service in Afghanistan. All were posthumous.
Peralta first came to the United States from Mexico without legal documentation as a teen and joined the Marines the day he got his green card on April 17, 2000. He later became a naturalized citizen.
The Marine Corps assembled extensive material supporting its Medal of Honor request, including witness statements, ballistic and forensic evidence and several medical opinions.
According to that investigation, Marines scrambling for cover after an insurgent threw a grenade toward them plainly saw Peralta reach with his arm to "scoop" the grenade under his body.
Scorch marks were later found on his flak jacket, along with embedded pieces of shrapnel and a part of the grenade fuse, the reports show. "There's no way that grenade got under the center of mass of his body without him putting it there," said Reserve Marine Lt. Col. Scott Marconda, who investigated the incident in 2004 as a major and judge advocate. "I'm not a cheerleader. It is what it is. And my point is: I believe that he did that."
The Marine investigation highlighted a key area of controversy: whether the gunshot wound to the back of Peralta's head from a ricochet left him unable to function.
Col. Eric Berg, an Army pathologist who autopsied Peralta's remains, said in the 2005 report that the head wound would have been "nearly instantly fatal. He could not have executed any meaningful motions."
Berg said Monday that he stands by his conclusions. Four other experts — Peralta's battalion surgeon, and two neurosurgeons and a neurologist who examined the autopsy reports — said Peralta could have knowingly reached for the grenade. They say the ricochet was traveling at a "low velocity" and would not have immediately killed him.
Regardless, Jones said, Peralta is still a hero. Not receiving the Medal of Honor "won't change what he did out there."
Contributing: Alan Gomez
Thursday, September 11, 2008
September 11, 2001, Lest We Forget........
......In memory of all those that lost their lives.May God Bless America.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Roasting Green Chiles on a Griddle or Gas Burner
Cookbook author, restaurant owner and television chef
Zarela Martinez shares her technique.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The Greek Festival, Santa Monica Pier and the Venice Whaler
Yesterday, Jeri and I went to the 2008 Greek Festival in Los Angeles at Saint Sophia Cathedral on Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles. It was supposed to be a really big event, lot’s of good Greek food, entertainment and Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were the guest hosts. Their website made it sound like it was a really big to do. I was really looking forward to it. I had small breakfast so I would be at my full eating capacity when we got there.
I needn’t have bothered. I can’t remember when I have been so disappointed. It was so small that within five minutes we had made a complete circle and seen everything, which wasn’t much, let me tell you. It cost five bucks a piece, which I thought was a bargain, until I actually went inside. It was a small commercial rip off with nothing to do or see. There were several eating booths and I thought, “well at least we’ll get some good Greek food.” We walked around a bit and decided to get some lamb, with rice, feta cheese, olives, small tomatoes and Dolmades (stuffed grape leaves). The plates were $13.50 a piece., but again I thought “what the heck, at least I’m getting some real Greek food“. I mean, if not at a Greek festival being held at a Greek cathedral, then where. Right?
I should have eaten at McDonalds because if this wasn’t the worst meal I’ve ever eaten it was at least, in the top five. The lamb, was cooked and that was it. Nothing Greek about it. just cooked, overcooked in fact, dried, tasteless lamb. The rice was tolerable, the Feta cheese was decent, but barely the size of a small pinky. The olives thankfully were from a jar and were the only good thing on the plate but hardly worth the money we paid. I paid $27.00 dollars for the privilege of eating junk. The sodas were $2.00 a can. I was trying to make the best of it but once we were done there was nothing to do. We already covered that in the first five minutes. We passed by a Greek pastry booth and got some baklava and cookies. Those were just okay or maybe by that time I was just soured on the whole experience. They did have some dancers there but the way everything was laid out, you couldn’t really see the dancers unless you were right up front. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita stood up, said a few words and thanked everyone for having them there. Poor Tom and Rita, at least Jeri and I were able to leave immediately, they had to stick around for three days and keep a smile on their face. That’s why they get paid the big bucks.
We were going to go home but I told Jeri let’s just take the 10 west and see what’s ahead today. The kids are grown up now but we still have the habit of rushing home as if the kids are waiting for us. They aren’t. We ended up at the Santa Monica Pier for awhile. We were going to eat at Bubba Gump’s on the pier but the food looked so commercial and I had already wasted money on junk earlier in the day at the festival. I was on a mission to get something good to eat.
As we were walking around I was craving an ice cold beer. Then It hit me. The Venice Whaler is just down the road in Venice. The Whaler was recommended to me by my friend Brian from Detroit. He was in town a while back visiting his cousin and stopped there for some beer and food. I had no idea where in Venice it was but somehow I found it. We weren’t disappointed. I parked the truck and we walked over to the Whaler. It’s two story building, a bar and restaurant. We headed upstairs first and it was really crowded with locals having a good time, watching a game on one of the televisions. The bar was packed and there were no tables so we went back downstairs. It was little quieter than upstairs but still filled with lots of people. A game was on the television and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Jeri got a Miller Lite and I had Sam Adam’s. They were ice cold and went down real good. We settled on the Fish and Chips. They were good. What really made it nice, was our table was right next to a big open window, more like French Doors really, so we were practically eating Al Fresco. The beach was just across the walkway. We took a walk on the pier and around the area. I made a mental note of several restaurants, including an excellent Italian Trattoria that we had eaten at years ago, a Mediterranean restaurant, a Mexican restaurant and several small cafes.
It was late by the time we left for home. I was a little unfamiliar with the area since it had been years since I had been to Venice. I found the freeway on ramp but it was closed. It took me a while to find an on ramp. In fact, I was sort of lost and just could not find an off ramp, and I’m not the kind of guy to ask anyone either. I could almost hear Rod Serling in the back seat saying to someone, anyone “ A couple; one idiot and his wife, in search of good Greek food and a good meal have instead found themselves searching for an eternity for an on ramp,.. to the Twilight Zone. My wife thought she heard something too. Eventually, I found an on ramp and headed home. The Greek Festival was a joke and a dud but all in all it was good day.
Margie's BIMS: What's Going On?
To all those that have been following Margie's BIMS on a regular basis and are wondering what happened to her. She is okay. We are having a problem getting her back online and in the Blogger system. As soon as we figure out the problem. Margie's BIMS will be back. Thanks for reading. I know she appreciates it and she works hard to get her BIMS out like clockwork.
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