"We are going to destroy insurgents," Peralta wrote. "Watch the news.... Be proud of me, bro. I'm going to do something I always wanted to do.
"You should be proud of being an American. Our father came to this country and became a citizen because it was the right place for our family to be. If anything happens to me, just remember I've already lived my life to the fullest."
Peralta had left his mother, Rosa, with similar words. She said he told her, "I want you to be strong and take care of my brother and sisters because I don't know if I'll return."
His mother added, "I'm proud of him, but my heart is sad."
Rafael Peralta had not been assigned to the Nov. 15 attack on Fallouja. Still, he volunteered.
As a scout, assigned to perimeter security, he could have stayed on the periphery. Instead, he took the lead as his platoon stormed a house in search of heavily armed insurgents known to be hiding in the neighborhood.
The house appeared empty. Then Peralta opened a door to a back room, and three insurgents fired their AK-47s. Marines fired back at near point-blank range with M-16 rifles and automatic weapons.
Hit several times in the chest and once in the head, Peralta went down and appeared dead. Insurgents tossed a "yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped" grenade toward the Marines.
To the amazement of the other Marines, Peralta, apparently with his last bit of strength, "reached out and pulled the grenade into his body," said Kaemmerer, a combat correspondent from the 1st Force Service Support Group assigned to the battalion.
Peralta's body absorbed most of the deadly fragments from the blast.
"Most of the Marines in the house were in the immediate area of the grenade," Kaemmerer said. "Every one of us is grateful and will never forget the second chance at life Sgt. Peralta gave us."
After the grenade blast, the house caught fire, and Marines repositioned in the street for a second assault.
Within minutes, the three insurgents had been killed by Marines and Peralta's body recovered.
In the hours after the battle, Marines spoke quietly of Peralta's heroism.
"You're still here, don't forget that," Lance Cpl. Richard A. Mason told Kaemmerer. "Tell your kids, your grandkids, what Sgt. Peralta did for you and other Marines today."
Even in their pain, Peralta's family members are not surprised that he decided to lead from the front.
