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The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday morning that it has named one of its new ships after Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a San Diego native who died a hero in Iraq in 2004. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced the move, saying a new guided-missile destroyer will be named the USS Rafael Peralta. A Pentagon statement said Mabus named that ship and two other new destroyers after Navy and Marine Corps heroes whose actions occurred during different conflicts but "were united in their uncommon valor." Peralta was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross after using his body to shield fellow Marines from an...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to award Sgt. Rafael Peralta a Navy Cross instead of a Medal of Honor makes no sense. Either Peralta grabbed a grenade to protect his fellow Marines or he did not. If Peralta grabbed the grenade then he deserves a Medal of Honor. If he did not grab the grenade than there is no reason to award him a Navy Cross. Peralta was born in Mexico and joined the Marines as soon as he received a green card. He subsequently became a U.S. citizen while serving in the Marines. On November 15, 2004, while...

According to the secretary of the Navy, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta gave his life to save his comrades in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004, grabbing a hostile grenade, pulling it to his body and absorbing the brunt of the blast. President Bush later praised Peralta as a hero. But a decision by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates not to recommend him for the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, stirred an outcry yesterday by his family and Marines whose lives he saved. Peralta instead will be posthumously awarded the second-highest award for valor in combat, the...

Long lists of soldiers killed in wartime can have great emotional power, as anyone who has been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington can attest. However dignified and moving, though, in the end such a listing can really describe them only as a group: They wore the uniform and died in the service of their country. But who they were individually, how they served, what they left behind — that is more than a catalogue of names can convey. So here is the story behind just one of the names ''Nightline" will enumerate on Memorial Day: Sergeant Rafael Peralta...

It was in the third week of the Iraq war, as U.S. troops barreled toward Baghdad, that Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith's band of combat engineers found themselves on the wrong end of 10-to-1 odds. In a walled courtyard not far from Baghdad's airport, Smith and his 15 lightly armed soldiers were trying to hold off 100 Special Republican Guard fighters wielding rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 assault rifles. When wounds downed the U.S. crew of the armored vehicle bearing the Americans' sole heavy machine gun, Smith scrambled into the breach. In the gunner's hatch of that personnel carrier, with...

You thank someone when they give you a gift. You thank people for compliments, favors, extra efforts made on your behalf. You thank people all of your life from the time you learn that it's impolite not to. Just what can you say that is remotely close to adequate to thank someone who is no longer here to thank and who has given you the greatest gift of sacrifice that can be given? On Nov. 15, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine in Fallujah gave me my son's life. My son is a Marine PFC...

"It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," Lance Corporal Rob Rogers of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment told the Army Times. Corporal Rogers was describing the actions of his fellow Marine, Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a Mexican immigrant who enlisted in the Marine Corps the day he received his green card. Most readers of this column probably haven't heard about Rafael Peralta. With the exception of the Los Angeles Times, most of our mainstream media haven't bothered to write about him. The next time you log...

SAN DIEGO — Sgt. Rafael Peralta is dead, but the story of his sacrifice to save fellow Marines will live long in Marine Corps lore. In the fierce battle for the Iraqi town of Fallujah, Peralta, with gunshot wounds to his head and body, reached out and grabbed a grenade hurled by an insurgent, cradling it to his body to save others from the blast. The explosion in the back room of a house injured one Marine, but four others managed to scramble to safety. Peralta, 25, an immigrant from Mexico who enlisted the day he got his green-card work...

SGT PERALTA WAS A ASWSOME PERSON WHO I HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET. WHAT HE DID THERE IS NO WORDS TO DISCRIBE IT. YOU WILL BE MISSED PERALTA FROM ANOTHER FELLOW SGT

A hero's sacrifice Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group Story by: Computed Name: Lance Cpl. T. J. Kaemmerer Story Identification #: 2004122133650 FALLUJAH, Iraq(Dec. 2, 2004) -- "You're still here, don't forget that. Tell your kids, your grandkids, what Sgt. Peralta did for you and the other Marines today." As a combat correspondent, I was attached to Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment for Operation Al Fajr, to make sure the stories of heroic actions and the daily realities of battle were told. On this day, I found myself without my camera. With the batteries dead, I decided...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta built a reputation as a man who always put his Marines' interests ahead of his own. He showed that again, when he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life Tuesday, by shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast. "It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of Peralta's platoon mates in 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Peralta, 25, as platoon scout, wasn't even assigned to the...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta built a reputation as a man who always put his Marines' interests ahead of his own. He showed that again, when he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life Tuesday, by shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast. "It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of Peralta's platoon mates in 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Peralta, 25, as platoon scout, wasn't even assigned to the...