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, yesterday protested the decision to not award the medal with a vigil 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 last 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, shielding other Marines from the blast.

It had been widely acknowledged that Peralta, a Mexican immigrant who earned his citizenship while in uniform, deserved the nation's highest military honor. But Gates rejected a Marine Corps recommendation that Peralta receive the Medal of Honor.

APPEAL TO PRESIDENT

A Purple Heart yesterday hung from a red, white and black beaded choker worn by Cuts The Rope, a Native American from Hays, Mont., 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 asking him to 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.

A 'MARINE'S MARINE'

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 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 had questioned whether Peralta was fully in control of his faculties after being shot.

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

He had known Peralta before the deployment, and was in the same company but a different platoon.

Peralta, a "Marine's Marine," deserved the Medal of Honor, Cuts The Rope said.

"They've been whispering that in the wind ever since President Bush mentioned him in a speech," he said. The president singled out Peralta on Memorial Day in 2005.

The medal downgrade reopened old wounds from the Battle of Fallujah, one of the biggest firefights in Iraq, and flew in the face of eyewitness testimony by Hawai'i Marines.

ONGOING PROTEST

On Nov. 22, 2004, a week after Peralta was killed, Cuts The Rope and other Marines were clearing a house in Fallujah.

Cpl. Michael R. Cohen, 23, who also based in Hawai'i, had been killed earlier in the day by small arms fire.

As Cuts The Rope and other Marines moved through the house by flashlight, an enemy fighter came running into the room with several hand grenades in a vest and one in his hand that he detonated as he screamed "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great), Cuts The Rope said.

Cuts The Rope said he shot the man at least three times, "but it didn't even stop him," and the man blew himself up six feet away.

"Man, I got shredded on both arms and both legs," said the Marine, who was first wheelchair-bound and then walked with a crutch. He also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was medically retired from the Corps on June 30, 2006.

Cuts The Rope planned to spend most of the day yesterday protesting, and said he'll be out again today.

The Kailua man said if the decision to not award Peralta the Medal of Honor isn't reversed, 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.