CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The family of one of the most celebrated Marine heroes of the Iraq War on Monday accepted the nation’s second-highest award for valor on his behalf seven years after the Pentagon denied him the Medal of Honor.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus posthumously bestowed the Navy Cross on Sgt. Rafael Peralta for falling on a grenade during the battle for Fallujah in November 2004.

The Navy and Marine Corps had recommended the Medal of Honor, but then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates denied the award in 2008 amid questions about whether Peralta was too injured to understand what he did.

The decision came after the inspector general of the Defense Department fielded a complaint and Gates assembled a team of experts that concluded unanimously that he couldn’t have consciously pulled the grenade under him.

The decision outraged many Marines. It was upheld by Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel, who followed Gates as secretaries of defense.

Rosa Peralta, the Marine’s mother, long refused to accept the Navy Cross, which is the second highest decoration for valor of a member of the Navy or Marine Corps, and is equivalent to the U.S. Army’s Distinguished Service Cross.

Ricardo Peralta, Rafael’s brother, said his mother relented as plans progressed to name a missile destroyer after the fallen Marine. She plans to donate the medal to the USS Rafael Peralta when it is christened later this year.

“She felt, for the first time, something that displayed his spirit in essence,” Ricardo Peralta, 24, who followed his brother into the Marines, told reporters. “That gave her a complete change of heart. She thought it was appropriate for now for her to receive the Navy Cross.”