ASSOCIATED PRESS Rosa Maria Peralta talked about her late son, Sgt. Rafael Peralta, on Friday as she sat in his bedroom in San Diego. Sgt. Peralta, a Kaneohe Marine, was killed Nov. 15 in Iraq.

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Kaneohe Marine’s family
recalls death premonition

The San Diego man had
enlisted after receiving residency

SAN DIEGO » The two white envelopes from Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta arrived in the mail the day after his family learned he had been killed in battle.

Sgt. Rafael Peralta: He told his little brother in a letter about things to look forward to the war in Iraq

"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."

The 25-year-old Kaneohe-based Marine died Nov. 15 on the way to a field hospital in the Anbar province of Iraq after being shot in the chest and wounded in the head from bomb shrapnel.

Peralta had wanted to join the Marine Corps right after graduating from Morse High School in San Diego in 1997, but since 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.

His family said Peralta had a premonition of his death. It was a message they took seriously, having endured a series of tragedies.

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 Peralta's wedding day in 2003, the mother of his fiancee, Maritca Alvarez, died. Then while traveling in Mexico to bury her mother, Alvarez herself was fatally injured in a truck accident.

By the time Peralta learned that Alvarez had died, she was already buried in Michoacan state, next to her mother. Rafael and his mother flew down to visit the graves, carrying a bouquet of white lilies, Maritca's favorites.

Peralta said he began to have 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 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe in November 2003, and re-enlisted in April for four more years. The unit arrived in Iraq in mid-October.

In the letter written to his 13-year-old sister, Karen, Peralta advised her to do well in school and continue her karate lessons.

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 should not feel sad or lonely. He encouraged his family members to take care of one another in his absence.

"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."

A funeral Mass was to be celebrated at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot today, with burial and military honors to follow at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.