Comrades say Marine heroism tale of Iraq veteran was untrue

There are accounts of Sgt. Rafael Peralta saving lives by shielding others after he had been shot. Accounts that simply say he fell on a grenade. Now there is another account saying he was just near it.

The LA Times reported that Defense Secretary Hagel refuses to reopen Medal of Honor bid for Sgt. Rafael Peralta because "does not meet the "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" standard required for the nation's highest award for combat bravery." Then there are reports of video footage showing exactly what happened.

So what really happened? Keep in mind that as Peralta is the subject of this debate, he is no longer here to tell anyone what happened or push for anything. That is something all of us need to remember.

Comrades say Marine heroism tale of Iraq veteran was untrue
Washington Post
Ernesto Londoño
February 21, 2014

After his death in 2004 in Fallujah, Sgt. Rafael Peralta became perhaps the most lionized Marine of the Iraq war. Shot in the head during an intense firefight, the story went, the infantryman scooped a grenade underneath his body seconds before it exploded, a stunning act of courage that saved the lives of his fellow Marines.

The Navy posthumously awarded Peralta the Navy Cross, the service’s second-highest decoration for valor; named a destroyer after him; and made plans to display his battered rifle in the Marine Corps museum in Quantico, Va.

The tale of heroism has become emblematic of Marine valor in wartime. But new accounts from comrades who fought alongside Peralta that day suggest it may not be true. In interviews, two former Marines who were with Peralta in the house when he was shot said the story was concocted spontaneously in the minutes after he was mortally wounded — likely because several of the men in the unit feared they might have been the ones who shot him.

“It has always bugged me,” said Davi Allen, a Marine who was wounded in the grenade blast and who said he watched it detonate near, but not underneath, Peralta. After years of sticking to the prevailing narrative, Allen, 30, said he recently decided to tell the truth. “I knew it’s not the truth. But who wants to be the one to tell a family: ‘Your son was not a hero’?”
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