[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 149 (Thursday, September 18, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H8455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         AWARDING THE MEDAL OF HONOR TO SERGEANT RAFAEL PERALTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I think it's appropriate that I follow the 
remarks of my great friend Silvestre Reyes, who was a great veteran of 
Vietnam and who was a wonderful leader, I think the best leader in the 
history of the Border Patrol, and who is a great Member of this body, 
but he is a gentleman who has been to Iraq many times and to 
Afghanistan many times.
  Mr. Speaker, I take the well to comment on an event that occurred in 
San Diego, and that is regarding Sergeant Rafael Peralta, who was 
killed on November 14, 2004 in the now famous battle of Fallujah. He 
was killed, and absorbed the blast by an enemy grenade when, during 
house-to-house fighting, he was thrown into a small room while he and 
three other marines were working their way through this series of fire 
fights.
  According to the eyewitnesses and to the citation that he received, 
he pulled that grenade to his body and absorbed the full concussion and 
the full explosive power of that grenade on his own body and, thereby, 
saved his fellow marines.
  Now it has just been announced that he was awarded the Navy Cross, 
the second highest award for heroism, but not the Medal of Honor.
  Mr. Speaker, the last person who did that same act, in fact, who was 
a marine and who did that incredible act of sacrifice in Anbar 
province, was Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York. He was given the 
Medal of Honor--awarded it by President Bush in the White House--for 
falling on a grenade, for taking the shock and the deadly power of that 
grenade, thereby saving his colleagues.
  That is the standard that we have traditionally placed and the metric 
that we have traditionally placed on this act of heroism of a soldier 
or of a marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls a grenade under him 
when it's in close proximity to his buddies, knowing full well that 
that grenade will most likely kill him but making that split-second 
decision to give his life for his colleagues and for his country.
  Sergeant Rafael Peralta made that decision.
  Mr. Speaker, it appears to me that he should have been awarded the 
same award that Jason Dunham and many before him have been awarded in 
Vietnam--the same theater that Mr. Reyes fought in--in Korea, in World 
War II. Where we have recognized that standard of a soldier or of a 
marine who falls on a grenade or who pulls it to him to save his 
colleagues, we have traditionally recognized that act of heroism, that 
act of sacrifice with the Medal of Honor.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I intend to ask the President--and I hope a number 
of other people join me to ask the President--to review this award and 
to award to Rafael Peralta, posthumously, the same award that we 
awarded just a few months ago to Corporal Jason Dunham.

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