KANE'OHE BAY — Fellow Marines who served with Sgt. Rafael Peralta in Iraq aren't giving up on their four-year quest to see that he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery.

Former Marine Sgt. Catcher Cuts The Rope, who knew Peralta and was several blocks away in the city of Fallujah when Peralta was killed, protested the decision today at the scenic overlook next to the H-3 freeway leading to the Kane'ohe Bay Marine Corps base.

Cuts The Rope held a 5-foot-long sign saying: "Honor Peralta," and a large American flag on a pole. On the back of the sign, written in similar big block letters, was, "Sgt. Peralta didn't rate?"

Defense Secretary Robert Gates outraged the Peralta family and Marines when the announcement was made Wednesday that Peralta would receive the Navy Cross, not the Medal of Honor, after he pulled a grenade to his body on Nov. 15, 2004.

A Purple Heart hung from a red, white and black beaded choker worn by Cuts The Rope, a Native American from Hays, Montana, who was seriously wounded in Fallujah a week after Peralta died.

"I think the decision on the downgrading of my friend's Medal of Honor down to the Navy Cross is wrong," Cuts The Rope said. "I believe in my brothers, and I believe in the Marine Corps."

Cuts The Rope, who also was based out of Hawai'i, said the decision to downgrade the recognition "really angers me. No matter what happened to Sgt. Peralta, the ultimate thing that he did was the last thing he did. Most everyone doesn't dispute that."

"I don't see what the problem is. Why him?" Cuts The Rope said of the medal downgrade.

The protest is the latest example of actions big and small attempting to reverse the Pentagon decision that touched a raw nerve in the Marine Corps community.

A bipartisan group from California's congressional delegation on Friday sent President Bush a letter requesting that he review the matter.

Peralta, 25, was with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines out of Kane'ohe Bay. Fellow Hawai'i Marines said Peralta, who had been shot in the face and torso, pulled to his body an Iraqi grenade that bounced into a room with seven Marines.

Fellow Marine Robert Reynolds, who was next to Peralta, figured the short and stocky Marine nicknamed "Rafa" saved at least five lives by his actions.

A Pentagon-appointed panel had concluded that Peralta's actions did not meet the standard of "no margin of doubt or possibility of error," because he likely was hit by a friendly fire shot. The panel also had questioned whether Peralta was fully in control of his faculties.

Cuts The Rope, 35, who was medically retired from the Corps, said he was informed through Marine Corps buddies of the Pentagon decision, and had to do something.

He planned to spend most of the day today protesting, and said he'll be out again tomorrow.

Cuts The Rope said if the decision isn't reversed on the Medal of Honor downgrade, he'll leave his own Purple Heart at the Marine Corps memorial on base in a show of anger over the downgrade, and a show of respect for his Marine brother.