Jacklyn Harold Lucas, 17, Iwo Jima Marine and Medal of Honor Recipient

Nov 30 , 2025

Jacklyn Harold Lucas, 17, Iwo Jima Marine and Medal of Honor Recipient

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was just seventeen when the grenade tore through the night. The fiery blast was a reckoning—a boy’s instinct to protect drowning every pulse of fear.

Two live grenades landed among his Marine unit on Iwo Jima’s blood-soaked sands. Without hesitation, Jacklyn dove onto them, steel on flesh, absorbing the blast with a body too young for such brutality but hardened by a steel resolve.

He was the youngest Marine to ever earn the Medal of Honor in World War II. He earned it not with big words but with a small frame battling carnage—sacrificing himself to save others.

The Boy Who Wanted to Be a Marine

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was born August 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina. Raised amidst the grit of the American South during the Great Depression, Lucas dreamed of heroism long before battle tested his mettle.

He lied about his age to join the Marines at sixteen, driven by a restless heart and a faith-tinged belief in duty. His upbringing was colored with a strong Christian foundation, a daily Bible and hymns at his mother’s knee.

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." — Joshua 1:9

That promise fueled him. Honesty, courage, sacrifice—these were carved into his code, a young man ready to stand in hell for others.

Iwo Jima: Fire and Flesh

February 1945. The Battle of Iwo Jima was a maelstrom. Black volcanic ash mixed with blood. The Marine Corps was locked in a brutal fight for every patch of the island, every ounce of ground dripping with death.

Lucas’s unit was ambushed. Grenades rained down. Two men next to him froze, unable to act as the lethal spheres bounced between them.

No hesitation. No calculation. Jacklyn caught the grenades under his chest, turning his body into a shield.

The explosions ripped through him. His back was blown open, wounds searing, leaving shrapnel deep in his flesh and nearly tearing off his ears and eyelids. Miraculously, he survived.

His selfless act saved four fellow Marines from certain death.

From Ashes to Honor

The citation for Lucas’s Medal of Honor speaks in measured Cold War prose, but the truth screams in every syllable:

“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty...”

His courage was beyond his years. Despite grievous wounds, Lucas refused to quit, staying in the fight, his spirit unbroken.

General Holland Smith called him, “the bravest young man I ever met.” Veterans who served with him recalled a boy not bent by pain, but lifted by purpose.

Medals followed—Silver Star, Purple Heart—each a testament to scars worn like badges of honor.

Legacy Written in Blood and Hope

Jacklyn Harold Lucas’s story is not one of innocence lost. It’s the raw narrative of sacrifice made eternal, of a boy who carried more than grenades—he carried the weight of every soul who looks at his name and feels the fire to stand taller.

He reminds us redemption is stamped in every scar. Courage is a choice in the face of chaos. Faith is the unseen armor beneath torn flesh.

His life did not end on Iwo Jima’s black sands. Lucas went on to live decades marked by humble service and quiet strength, a testament that greatness is not only in heroic moments but in the grace that follows.

For those who forget the cost of freedom, remember young Lucas—the Marine who dove headfirst into hell, so others might rise.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." — John 15:13

He lived that truth. We owe him more than words.

Sources

1. U.S. Marine Corps History Division + Medal of Honor citation for Jacklyn Harold Lucas 2. Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, Peter Collier and David Horowitz 3. American Battle Monuments Commission + Battle of Iwo Jima Archives