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bobdina
06-18-2009, 01:14 PM
Lawmaker wants Medal of Honor review

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 18, 2009 7:55:31 EDT

A California congressman who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan convinced the House Armed Services Committee to order a full review of the criteria used for giving awards for gallantry and valor after a senior defense official said technological advancements and new combat tactics might be the reason fewer of the highest medals are being issued.

At the urging of Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine combat veteran elected to Congress in November, the armed services committee has asked for a review of trends in awarding the Medal of Honor to determine if the low number of awards in the current wars is the result of “inadvertent subjective bias amongst commanders.”

The committee also wants the Defense Department to survey officers and noncommissioned officers in leadership positions to look at attitudes about acts of valor. Hunter is looking for the reasons behind not just fewer nominations, but also a trend since the Vietnam War in which the only Medal of Honor awards have been for people who died during an act of valor.

He hopes the review and study, approved by voice vote during debate on the 2010 defense authorization bill, lead to an overhaul of defense and service guidance.

Hunter has been pressing the Defense Department for a review since a nomination for the Medal of Honor for Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta was downgraded to a Navy Cross. Peralta died as he smothered a grenade in Iraq in an act that saved lives — the same act that resulted in some veterans receiving Medals of Honor in the past.

In a June 2 letter to Hunter that was released Wednesday, Gail McGinn, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said defense officials see nothing amiss in the Peralta decision.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who made the final call, “was advised by five independent reviewers who all individually concluded that the evidence included in the [Medal of Honor] recommendation did not support the award,” McGinn wrote.

The reviewers included a former commanding general of Marine forces in Iraq, a neurosurgeon, two pathologists and a Medal of Honor recipient, McGinn said.

Her letter also responds to Hunter’s larger question about whether the criteria have changed over time. A 2008 review of guidance used in making the awards “found no evidence of a posthumous requirement, either written or unwritten,” she said.

What has changed, McGinn said, is warfare. U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq “are inherently different from previous major conflicts,” she said.

“The conduct of warfare has evolved significantly in the 30 years since the end of the Vietnam conflict,” she said. “Technological advancements have dramatically changed battlefield tactics, techniques and procedures. Precision-guided stand-off weapons allow our forces to destroy known enemy positions with reduced personal risk.”

Another factor, she said, is that the two modern conflicts involve adversaries who use tactics like remotely detonated explosive devices, rockets, mortar and sniper attacks — all of which reduce face-to-face engagements.

Hunter isn’t fighting alone. Fellow Iraq war veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., another armed services committee member, said he also thinks something is wrong if the Medal of Honor is being given only posthumously. “If this trend continues, we will have no more living heroes,” Murphy said.

The order for the study and survey are included in the report accompanying the defense bill, HR 2647, which the armed services committee approved early Wednesday after an all-day and all-night marathon session.

The bill calls for the study and report on the Medal of Honor process to be delivered to Congress by March 31.

bobdina
06-18-2009, 01:30 PM
I'm sorry but there's no way Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta does not deserve the Medal of Honor. The doctors say there is no way he knew what he was doing, well if thats the case why did he grab the grenade and smother it with his body. How many times have doctors been wrong? What the story doesn't say is his chain of command including his divisions commanding General approved the Medal. The "independent" review board went by a doctors testimony that there was no way he knew what he was doing because of a head wound he received seconds before this incident. Read story below, I'm sorry should have added it with original post

Cruelbreed
06-18-2009, 04:12 PM
I'm sorry but there's no way Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta does not deserve the Medal of Honor. The doctors say there is no way he knew what he was doing, well if thats the case why did he grab the grenade and smother it with his body. How many times have doctors been wrong? What the story doesn't say is his chain of command including his divisions commanding General approved the Medal. The "independent" review board went by a doctors testimony that there was no way he knew what he was doing because of a head wound he received seconds before this incident.

I don't believe I recall that story.

bobdina
06-18-2009, 05:02 PM
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter will award the Navy Cross medal — the nation’s second-highest combat award for valor in combat — to Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who pulled an enemy grenade to his body before it exploded, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.

Peralta, 25, died Nov. 15, 2004, while he and members of Alpha Company of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were in the second week of fighting in the Battle of Fallujah when he barged into a house with a rifle squad. They immediately came under fire from insurgents inside the house.

“Peralta was caught in a deadly crossfire between insurgents and his Marines, leaving him mortally wounded,” officials said in an announcement released by I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. “After the initial exchange of gunfire, the insurgents broke contact, throwing a fragmentation grenade as they fled the building.” The grenade stopped near Peralta’s head, they said, and “without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, Peralta reached out and pulled the grenade to his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast and shielding fellow Marines only feet away. Peralta succumbed to his wounds.” “He didn’t hesitate at all. He just reached down and took it,” then-Cpl. Robert Reynolds, who was with Peralta in that Fallujah house, said in a 2006 interview with Marine Corps Times, adding, “He gave three guys for sure a second chance at life.” On a side note his family has refused to accept the Navy Cross because they believe he should have gotten the MOH and feel because he was Mexican he was discriminated against.

Cruelbreed
06-18-2009, 09:26 PM
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter will award the Navy Cross medal — the nation’s second-highest combat award for valor in combat — to Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who pulled an enemy grenade to his body before it exploded, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.

Peralta, 25, died Nov. 15, 2004, while he and members of Alpha Company of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were in the second week of fighting in the Battle of Fallujah when he barged into a house with a rifle squad. They immediately came under fire from insurgents inside the house.

“Peralta was caught in a deadly crossfire between insurgents and his Marines, leaving him mortally wounded,” officials said in an announcement released by I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. “After the initial exchange of gunfire, the insurgents broke contact, throwing a fragmentation grenade as they fled the building.” The grenade stopped near Peralta’s head, they said, and “without hesitation and with complete disregard for his own safety, Peralta reached out and pulled the grenade to his body, absorbing the brunt of the blast and shielding fellow Marines only feet away. Peralta succumbed to his wounds.” “He didn’t hesitate at all. He just reached down and took it,” then-Cpl. Robert Reynolds, who was with Peralta in that Fallujah house, said in a 2006 interview with Marine Corps Times, adding, “He gave three guys for sure a second chance at life.” On a side note his family has refused to accept the Navy Cross because they believe he should have gotten the MOH and feel because he was Mexican he was discriminated against.

Yeah I don't know what's going on there. You think there was some form of discrimination?

bobdina
06-18-2009, 11:21 PM
The experts who weren't there say there was no way he could have knowingly done that with the wound he had received . So I guess by some magic the grenade wanted a comfy home and decided to roll under Sgt. Rafael Peralta's body for warmth before accidentally exploding. I don't think there was discrimination . I think the Marine chain of command on the ground where he was should be the determining factor ( his commanding General approved it ) not people who weren't there. Christ you hear almost every day people doing things doctors say are impossible . I read that everyone on the panel based they're opinions on what the doctors said. I wish more people knew about this and pitched a fit.

Cruelbreed
06-20-2009, 06:50 PM
I don't quite understand it. If it was just some mere coincidence that he didn't intend then why do they give the medal at all? The story gives a pretty obvious indication that he did what he meant to do. I believe the man knew he was mortally wounded and made a last ditch effort to save the rest. As to what medal he deserves I have no idea , but he was a brave man.