Posted on: Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Marine had premonition of death, family says
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — The two white envelopes from Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta arrived in the mail the day after his family learned he'd been killed in battle.
Rafael Peralta, who was based at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe, died Nov. 15 on the way to a field hospital in the Anbar province of Iraq. According to initial reports from fellow Marines, a seriously wounded Peralta clutched a grenade to his body after it had been tossed into a house by an insurgent, shielding several Marines from the blast.
Peralta, 25, had wanted to join the Marine Corps right after graduating from Morse High School in 1997, but because he was a Mexican citizen, he had to wait until 2000 after he received legal residency. He later became a U.S. citizen. He was proud to wear a military tattoo on his arm, and to hang medals, commendations and plaques with the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence around his bed at his family's home in the San Diego neighborhood of Webster.
LG Francis • Marine Corps Times Three years ago, his father, Rafael Peralta Rios, was killed when a truck he was working on rolled over and crushed him. On the eve of his wedding day in 2003, the mother of his fiancée, Maritca Alvarez, died. Then while traveling in Mexico to bury her mother, Maritca herself was fatally injured in a truck accident.
By the time Peralta learned that his fiancée had died, she was already buried in Michoacan state, next to her mother.
Peralta told his family he had a recurring dream about Maritca, who came to him in his sleep and said she was going to take him with her.
"He said he was ready to die," said his sister, Icela Donald, 24. "He had reconciled with God. ... He would always tell my mom that there was a possibility that he might not come back."
Peralta was assigned to the Marine Corps base in Kane'ohe in November 2003. In April, he re-enlisted for four more years.
He told 14-year-old Ricardo about all the things he could look forward to, such as going to high school and the prom.
And no matter what happened, the Marine wrote, Ricardo shouldn't feel sad or lonely.
"Just think about God and we will all be together again," he wrote. "If anything happens to me, just remember I lived my life to the fullest and I'm happy with what I lived."
"Tomorrow, at 19:00 hours (7 p.m.), we are going to declare war in the holy city of Fallujah," Peralta wrote to his younger brother, Ricardo. "We are going to defeat the insurgents. Watch the news, it's going to be all over. Be proud of me, bro, I'm going to make history and do something that I always wanted to do."
Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta
His family said Peralta had a premonition of his death. It was a message they took seriously, having endured a series of tragedies.
The name of Hawai'i-based Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was killed Nov. 15 in Iraq, is stenciled onto the sleeve of a fellow Marine.
