Gates approved then rescinded Peralta’s MOH
We’ve discussed Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta and his final act to save his fellow Marines, the act that cost him his own life. In his book, Duty, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that he approved, then rescinded Peralta’s Medal of Honor, according to the Marine Corps Times;
In his book “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” Gates said he was convinced by the evidence the Marines presented, and had submitted his medal recommendation to the president before deciding to withdraw it.
“The medal recommendation had been endorsed by the proper chain of approval, including the secretary of the Navy and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, the documentation also included dissenting views from the medical forensic community and the undersecretary for personnel and readiness,” Gates wrote in a chapter titled “One Damn Thing After Another.”
So, let me get this straight, he approved the recommendation when he read the statements from Marines who were on the spot and witnessed the act, but then he changed his mind when he looked at what pogues who weren’t there had to say? I guess that little incident could be the theme of Gate’s whole tenure at the Pentagon. He wasn’t listening to people on the ground, he was listening to the “experts”.
“As a result, I personally interviewed several senior officers in Peralta’s chain of command, and in light of the unanimous support of the entire uniformed leadership involved, I approved the recommendation. I was satisfied that Sergeant Peralta met all the criteria and deserved the Medal of Honor.”
Soon after, Gates wrote, he learned of a complaint made to the Defense Department Inspector General that alleged Peralta could not have acted consciously to cover the grenade and save fellow Marines’ lives.
Gates should have just kept his mouth shut after he retired. I hate him more each day, usually more at the end of the day than when it began.
Category: Big Army
“Soon after, Gates wrote, he learned of a complaint made to the Defense Department Inspector General that alleged Peralta could not have acted consciously to cover the grenade and save fellow Marines’ lives.”
I’d love to know who made that complaint. If it was a Marine, I’d be leaving my fingerprints on their neck.
This REALLY pisses me off. A quote of Gates from the MCT article:
“The panel concluded unanimously that, with his wounds, Peralta could not have consciously pulled the grenade under him,” Gates wrote. “I had no choice but to withdraw my approval.”
Bullshit. You DID have a choice. You were the SecDef. You could have disagreed with the panel and sent the package on up with a “strongly recommend approval” endorsement.
Fuck you.
Honor IS
RIP Sgt. Rafael Peralta we honor your sacrifice.
Now this will light a fire storm. There is more to this story. I am pissed. And Jonn is spot on, he should have kept his yap shut … Atleast for awhile. Too much too soon.
I will say it now. By then his relationship with Barry was on the ropes and the WH signalled they would not approve.
Stick that in your pipe.
Give it two or three days.
And yet his Navy Cross citation disagrees with Gates.
If Gates were an honorable man he would have resigned and made all his allegations public at the time. This book is all about the money. These guys make Nixon look like a amateur. No one died during Watergate.
@5 no shit… They deny him based on some BS but his Navy Cross is awarded to him for the very act they say he could not have committed.
Is this supposed to be anything other than an insult to his family friends and fellow marines?
Fuck you, Gates.
There seems to be no limit to the dishonorable behavior these clowns are willing participate in, supervise, orchestrate, or otherwise commit. Disgusting. And we must all be nuts to pay for it.
@ 5 … Interesting. We have discussed this before. The political diference between the Navy Cross of MoH. Two other cases are Slabinski and Bass. Read those citations. They did not receive MoH because of the classifed nature of their missions. Citation were redacted for years.
Gates. I hope you sleep well at night and enjoy the money you made by kissing your political masters asses in private and then publicly say it didn’t smell like roses. May you rot in the hell you deserve.
Gates impresses me as being the kind of gutless bedwetter who sticks a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing before making a decision. I’ll give him a couple of points, however, for seeing Barry for the POS he is.
This guy looks more and more like a spineless crapweasel with every revelation.
And this guy wasn’t supposed to be able to salute either. http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/09/22246107-the-salute-seen-around-the-world-revisited?lite
“The poignant image happened at a time when most of the hospital staff in Hargis’ room thought he was unconscious.”
Instead of them wrangling to take sexual assault investigations out of the hands of Commanders…
They need to take the MOH approval process out of the hands of anyone above O-6…maybe O-5
From that level (BN or BDE) it should go to a board of MOH recipients who will then make a recommendation directly to the POTUS at a press release
Then the onus is on the POTUS to accept or decline the recommendation of that august body of men
Further proof (as if more was needed) that anyone inside the Beltway is a lying whore. The only variable is price.
Awards being knocked down by POGs happens all the time. I was put in for a BSM w/V by my platoon leader which was knocked down by our CO to an Arcom w/V by our corps awards board then it was eventually knocked down to just an Arcom by our Task Force. I was injured a few weeks later and they also lost my Purple Heart because our Task Force awards board needed more information. What more do you need? I was hit by an VBIED and I was MEDVAC out of country. It was eventualy mailed to me after I retired. I ended up finding out a mail clerk at TF HQ got a BSM/V for IDF and the TF SGM got a CIB/PH for running over a UXO. Our TF SGM was denying CIBs in 2006 for IED attacks in Iraq. Yet when he hit a UXO he put himself in for everything he could. Awards are political.
From Gates to the pols that spit and shit on us vets to the POGUES who either lose or downgrade awards to those of us who risk and sacrifice life and limb outside the wire, I have to ask: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO SELL YOUR SOUL FOR EITHER ASSKISSING OR POLITICAL POINTS, MOTHERFUCKERS?
#18 API; Your peeing in the wind, bro. POG’s only answer to themselves and maybe the POG above them. Gates will probably and quietly go back to the University of Texas, Austin and pick up where he left off. Fuck him.
Well, we all know the office pogues know everything.
Michael Monsoor didn’t have time to think either but he still got the MOH. In those situations our men DON’T have time to think. That’s why they are trained to REACT. INSTANTLY.
Not exactly decisive and resolute, was he?
It’s bullshit. Peralta rates the MOH.
Gates’ only redeeming quality is that he saw through Obama and his idiot chimp Biden.
This latest revelation about Sergeant Peralta makes me sick. That Marine has deserved the Medal of Honor since 2004. It is time to right this wrong. The evidence is all in favor of it. Unfortunately it is going to take people with a spine to finally make it happen. Those people are in short supply in D.C.
I agree with all of the above but will quote a sentiment expressed by a few, a sentiment that I believe says it all, straight from the heartand :
@1. “Fuck you.”
@8. “Fuck you, Gates.”
@19. “Fuck him.”
@15 O-4E
That’s the best idea I’ve heard yet….Let the living MOH recipients make the recommendation!
That statement by Gates sums up Senior Leadership and their actions in both conflicts. Pointy headed no-loads sitting behind a desk have more effect on action decisions than the boots on the ground first hand intel. How many times did we see troops that were in the middle of the action ignored and flat out hung out to dry. Sickening.
Gates is a dumbass. Back in 2010, he was talking to a class of O-3s at Squadron Officers School and kept referring to Combat Rescue as “helicopters that fly alone and unarmed into enemy territory,” hence the need for more CV-22s. After a few of the bemused members of the audience raised their hands and challenged this completely FUBARed version of what CSAR really is, the briefing was quickly wrapped up before anything really embarrassing was said by the SECDEF.
So none of this stuff that is coming to light right now really surprises me. I knew he was incompetent 4 years ago, just like all the general officers and 99% of our civilian leadership.
@26
I agree. Take the perfumed princes out of the equation.
The recommendation should go right from the battalion or brigade directly to the board of MOH recipients.
Then let them make a recommendation directly to the POTUS, in a public press release.
No more back room deals. The US public deserves to know their heroes.
The Marine Corps Museum Had photos of Peraltas rifle and flak jacket up yesterday, believe it was in the Marine Corps Times also. The rifle was retrieved from an armory on Okinawa with the battle damage and dirt from his action plainly evident. I would hope that some smart armorer left it in that condition as a just in case. One only has to look at the damage to both to put all the POG bullshit to rest.
But then Peralta came here from Mexico and chose to serve instead of taking handouts and that just doesn’t fit the Lefts agenda.
All Marines everywhere should take up this cause…. we are sick to death of the screw job the Pentagon and America gives the Corps; two Recipients… one posthumous… in one of America’s longest wars. Gawd I detest civilians and politicians.
@29
No, it shouldn’t. There needs to be oversight with regards to medals and other awards. That goes triple for the MoH. Battalions and brigades can’t be naively trusted to only put in deserving candidates for awards, nor can they be trusted not to embellish what would normally earn a lower medal into something more.
Infantry regiments pride themselves on the MoH awardees, and gain prestige because of them. Just look at the 442nd RCT from WWII. They hold the record with 21, if the MoH process were easier then you could bet dollars to doughnuts that unscrupulous unit commanders would seek to surpass that record dishonestly.
I hope that someday this Leatherneck gets the MOH he deserves.
I also hope that someday, politicians will pull their heads out of their asses.
I’m not holding my breath…
Interesting story that. In 2004 I was a civilian contract firefighter at Camp Fallujah. I arrived in time for the second battle and ended up helping out at Bravo Surgical (all EMT’s and Paramedics helped in the hospital because of the overflow). Anyhoo–The fire station (a tent behind the hospital) was always a place the Marines would and could hang out to unwind/decompress. We would of course always have coffee available for the Devil Dogs and I always though they were drawn to it because a fire station (even if it was a tent) was a reminder of home. Often times, the worn out infantry guys would come in and sit and talk to us–sometimes they would just sit and fall asleep. It was kind of cathartic for them (an us–all of whom had to watch this drama unfolding sitting on our hands). It was especially tough for me, being a former Marine. One day, this Combat Camera dude comes in and looks bad. Starts to tell us this story of the battle (we heard lots of stories, as I mentioned, we were an unofficial coffee stop–later steaks but that’s another story). He goes on about how he’s with this squad that is doing the house to house thing and how they get into this one house where the Sgt. pops and interior door and gets in the face. Goes down right at the door–grenade pops out of the back room and in his last dying act, he scoops the grenade shielding everyone in the room. Guy (who’s name I really don’t remember unfortunately) was really tore up, having survivor issues as he was in the room. Went on and on about how Sgt. Peralta saved his life. I have been following this since. Seemed clear to me at the time that the MOH was going to be automatic as I knew that falling on a grenade was always the act that represented the ultimate sacrifice and act of love for fellow soldiers/Marines. I remember we all were kind of stunned that he was to only get the cross and… Read more »