After he takes office, President-elect Barack Obama will be urged to overturn a Bush administration decision and award the Medal of Honor to a Kaneohe Marine.

Fellow Marines say Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25, saved their lives by grabbing a grenade and holding it against his body in Iraq in 2004. Peralta died in the blast.

Peralta, a San Diego native and member of the Kaneohe-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, lifted weights at the same gym that Obama is using during his vacation and ate at the same mess hall that Obama visited on Christmas Day.

On Nov. 15, 2004, Peralta was at point - the first one to enter a house - in Fallujah when insurgents opened fire inside. Peralta was hit and on the ground when a yellow grenade came into the room.

“;He put his right arm out and pulled the grenade into his body, shielding the blast,”; said Robert Reynolds, a former Kaneohe Marine who was with Peralta. “;He saved my life and the rest of the Marines in the room that day. If it wasn't for that, I would have been dead. There's no doubt about it.”;

President Bush cited Peralta's heroism in a speech on Memorial Day 2005, saying Peralta “;understood that American faces dangerous enemies, and he knew the sacrifices required to defeat them.”;

But last month, Robert Gates, who is staying on as Obama's defense secretary, reaffirmed the decision to award Peralta the Navy Cross rather than the Medal of Honor.

Gates said five independent experts reviewed the forensic evidence and reports and unanimously found Peralta's case did not meet the standards for the Medal of Honor because they could not be sure Peralta acted deliberately. The panel consisted of a neurosurgeon, two forensic pathologists, a general and a Medal of Honor recipient.

Capt. Beci Brenton, a spokeswoman for Navy Secretary Donald Winter, told the Associated Press “;there was conflicting evidence in the case of Sgt. Peralta as to whether he could have performed his final acts given the nature of his injuries.”;

Peralta had been hit in the head and upper body, most likely by friendly fire.

After all the evidence was scrutinized, officials determined that it “;did not meet the exact standard necessary to support the Medal of Honor,”; she said.

  That determination angered Reynolds.

“;It is like calling us liars,”; he said. “;The panel that Gates had pretty much said it didn't happen, that there's no way it could have happened. Obviously there is a way, because I'm still here. He obviously took that grenade in. It didn't roll up under him. He had to tuck it there.”;

George Sabga, a lawyer and friend of the Peralta family, says they will be asking Obama to reconsider Gates' decision.

“;We have new evidence,”; Sabga said. He said video made by the Marines of the battle and its aftermath were never considered by military investigators or Gates' panel. The family also might contact their own forensics experts, he said.

Joseph Kinney, who has advocated before Congress for a review of medals awarded in Iraq and Afghanistan, says Peralta is not the only case of a Marine who might have deserved a Medal of Honor but received a Navy Cross instead.

“;We have 247 Medals of Honor from Vietnam versus five, all white kids - I don't know if you've noticed that - from this combat,”; he said. “;It doesn't make any sense.”;

Kinney has asked the Obama transition team to consider appointing an independent panel of combat veterans to review all of the Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross awards in Iraq and Afghanistan to see whether any should be upgraded.

Joe Kasper, a spokesman for retiring U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of San Diego, said the new Congress will also get involved when it convenes in January.

Hunter's son is taking over his father's seat and will renew the request for a review of Peralta's medal after Obama is sworn in. Hawaii's four congressional representatives joined in writing a letter to President Bush asking for a reconsideration of Peralta's case.

It is also possible, although it has never happened before, that Congress could pass a bill to give Peralta the Medal of Honor which would become law if Obama signs it.

  There is precedent for a president overruling the defense secretary in awarding the Medal of Honor, said Doug Sterner, who runs the Web site homeofheros.com and is considered an expert on military decorations. President Jimmy Carter did so in the case of Marine Cpl. Anthony Casamento, who was awarded his medal 38 years after his actions at Guadalcanal in World War II.

Sterner thinks Congress should review the way the Defense Department awards its medals.

“;This is a major national problem,”; he said. “;I think Congress needs to look at whether the DOD is applying arbitrary rules to the vetting of awards.”;

He said it is wrong to favor forensic evidence over the eyewitness accounts of five Marines who were there.

“;I don't think science can determine it (heroism),”; he said. “;There is only one true gauge of what happened, and that is those who saw it.”;

A spokesman for Obama declined comment on Peralta's case yesterday.

Reynolds said he has written the president-elect and asked for justice.

In what is perhaps a silent protest, the Marine Corps has never given Peralta's family the Navy Cross.

“;They've never offered it, and the family has never asked for it,”; Sabga said.

The family is still holding out hope that Peralta will get the Medal of Honor and has not decided whether they will accept the Navy Cross if offered, he said.

Catcher Cuts The Rope, a former Kaneohe Marine who lives in Kailua, said Peralta loved being in Hawaii and loved going to the beach and going out.

Cuts The Rope said many Marines feel as he does that Peralta should get the Medal of Honor. “;Honor his sacrifice. That's what the heck it's for, isn't it?”;

On Christmas Day, Obama shook hands, posed for pictures and signed autographs for Kaneohe Marines at Anderson Hall, where service members and their families were eating dinner. The mess hall is named after Pfc. James Anderson, a member of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, now based at Kaneohe.

While on patrol during the Vietnam War in Cam Lo on Feb. 28, 1967, Anderson's company came under attack, and a grenade was thrown near Anderson's head. The Marine grabbed it and pulled it into his body as it went off, saving the lives of the men around him.

For that action, President Lyndon B. Johnson posthumously awarded Anderson the Medal of Honor.