This is from the Seattle Times. Kinda makes you think a little about what real sacrifices are, doesn't it?
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta built a reputation as a man who always put his Marines' interests ahead of his own.
He showed that again, when he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life Tuesday, by shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast.
"It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of Peralta's platoon mates in 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.
Peralta, 25, as platoon scout, wasn't even assigned to the assault team that entered the insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah, Marines said. Despite an assignment that would have allowed him to avoid such dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders if he could join their assault teams, they said.
One of the first Marines to enter the house, Peralta was wounded in the face by rifle fire from a room near the entry door, said Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, 20, of Tacoma, who was in the house when Peralta was first wounded.
Moments later, an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where a wounded Peralta and the other Marines were seeking cover.
As Morrison and another Marine scrambled to escape the blast, pounding against a locked door, Peralta grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body, Morrison said. While one Marine was badly wounded by shrapnel from the blast, the Marines said they believe more lives would have been lost if not for Peralta's selfless act.
"He saved half my fire team," said Cpl. Brannon Dyer, 27, of Blairsville, Ga.
The Marines said such a sacrifice would be perfectly in character for Peralta, a Mexico native who lived in San Diego and gained U.S. citizenship after joining the Marines.
"He'd stand up for his Marines to an insane point," Rogers said.
Rogers and others remembered Peralta as a squared-away Marine, so meticulous about uniform standards that he sent his camouflage uniform to be pressed while training in Kuwait before entering Iraq.
But mostly they remembered acts of selflessness: offering career advice, giving a buddy a ride home from the bar, teaching salsa dance steps in the barracks.
While Alpha Company was still gathering information, and a formal finding on Peralta's death is likely months away, not a single Marine in Alpha Company doubted the account of Peralta's act of sacrifice.
"I believe it," said Alpha's commander, Capt. Lee Johnson. "He was that kind of Marine."
For a long time now I have not had a "I-gotta-go-see-this-movie-RIGHT-NOW" kind of reaction to a trailer. I had the food network on while I'm cleaning out the refrigerator and there came a trailer for a movie called {proof}. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Gwyneth Paltrow and is about a woman who's father was an amazing mathematician (I love mathematician movies -- last good one was A Beautiful Mind) but goes a little crazy towards the end of his life. I'm not sure what Jake Gyllenhaal's role is yet but I'm suspecting that it's love interest. What else would it be, right? But Jake Gyllenhaal is always in the most amazing or at least thought-provoking movies including October Sky and Donnie Darko. The crazy/brilliant dad is played by Anthony Hopkins. The pre-release buzz is that this might make Gwyneth an Oscar contender. It's set to be released on September 16th which is a Friday. We're going to be pretty busy that weekend but I'm hoping we can squeeze it in. It looks amazing.
