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| Peralta: Ship christening 'bittersweet' |
| 2015-11-03 |
| Days before he died in combat, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta wrote a letter to his younger brother saying, "Be proud of me, bro, I'm going to make history." Ricardo Peralta remembered the letter aloud Saturday in Maine during the christening of the new Navy destroyer named for his fallen brother. "I've been reading this letter for over a decade. It was right after I got off the USS Rafael Peralta that I felt, that's the history he was talking about," Ricardo Peralta said Monday, after returning home to San Diego. "I thought I was witnessing that history ... that ship that holds the fighting spirit that he held in combat," he said. It was a long and emotional road to Maine's Bath Iron Works for the Peralta family, who immigrated to San Diego from Mexico. Rafael attended Morse High School and reportedly enlisted the day he received his Green Card in 2000. He was killed in November 2004 during a house-to-house clearing operation in Fallujah, Iraq. Peralta is credited with scooping a live grenade under his body to save his brothers in arms. hero The Marine Corps nominated the sergeant for the nation's top military award, the Medal of Honor. But then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates downgraded the medal after a special panel of experts opined that Peralta's head wounds rendered him incapable of conscious thought in his last moments. "Like a politician"? This panel of experts didn't consider his physical action? RTWT |
| Posted by:Frank G |