Jacklyn Harold Lucas Survived Two Grenades and Won the Medal of Honor

Nov 26 , 2025

Jacklyn Harold Lucas Survived Two Grenades and Won the Medal of Honor

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was 17 years old — barely a man by any measure — when death rattled down on him like artillery hell. The air thick with smoke and screams, grenades lobbed like thunderbolts around his squad. In that moment, Lucas did what few could—what no one else would. He threw himself, twice, on live grenades, two explosions lofting him into mutilated silence.

The youngest Marine ever to earn the Medal of Honor bore the scars of sacrifice — and the burden of survival.

Born to Fight and Believe

Jacklyn Harold Lucas grew up in a world torn by the Great Depression. Born in Plymouth, North Carolina, in 1928, he revered strength and duty. From boyhood, his faith anchored him—the kind of steady compass that only comes from deep conviction.

Raised Methodist, Lucas grasped the idea of greater good early on. His mother’s prayers and Sunday sermons planted the seeds of courage and redemption. When Jacklyn enlisted in the Marine Corps at 14, lying about his age, it was more than youthful bravado. It was a vow—a sacred pact to defend something larger than himself.

“The Lord has given me a purpose,” Lucas echoed later.

Tarawa: The Crucible of Fire

November 20, 1943. The Battle of Tarawa. A tiny atoll in the Pacific, the bloody tooth of the island-hopping campaign. The 2nd Marine Division faced hellfire from fortified Japanese positions on Betio Island. The fighting was brutal, close, and unforgiving.

Lucas landed with his unit in the dead of dawn—just days after turning 17 but officially 18 on paper. The beach was a hellscape of machine gun fire, exploding shells, wreckage. The dust swallowed everything.

Then it happened. A Japanese grenade landed midst their ranks. Reflex, fear, instinct blurred. Lucas dove, covering the grenade with his chest. The blast buried his body in shrapnel; then another grenade fell nearby. He didn’t hesitate. Again he threw himself down.

Two grenades. Two acts of selfless valor that saved the lives of four fellow Marines. Wounds tore through his body. Both legs broken, chest full of fragments, burns across his skin.

Medal of Honor: A Hero Honored

Lucas survived against all odds. In hospital, his marine fighting spirit refused to wither.

Medal of Honor citation, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, detailed the extraordinary courage:

“His intrepid actions, above and beyond the call of duty, reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.”

He was the youngest to receive the Medal of Honor in World War II, age 17, a distinction no less fierce for its youth.

Marine Commandant Alexander Vandegrift described him as:

“A man who showed valor in the teeth of absolute terror.”

Lucas later received the Purple Heart and Silver Star, honors hammered out in blood and grit.

Legacy in the Trenches of Time

Jacklyn Harold Lucas’s story is more than a footnote in Marine Corps history. It’s a testament to unspeakable courage born in youthful bones—a reminder that valor is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it by the soul.

His scars rotted flesh but never his spirit. After the war, Lucas carried the weight of that day lightly, speaking rarely but living plainly. His faith remained his strongest weapon.

“Greater love hath no man than this,” he once reflected, “than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

His legacy punches through modern comfort zones, reminding us all that sacrifice demands remembrance. That courage is the calling card of every combat veteran who has stood between chaos and order.

We don’t get to choose the grenades that fall around us in life. But we do get to choose how we respond.

Jacklyn Harold Lucas answered with his body, his faith, and his heart.

And in the thunderous silence that followed, he left a legacy none can steal.

Sources

1. U.S. Marine Corps History Division + “Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II” 2. Congressional Medal of Honor Society + “Jacklyn H. Lucas Citation and Biography” 3. Department of Defense + “Battle of Tarawa After Action Reports” 4. Alexander Vandegrift, quoted in “Marines at War: World War II Oral Histories” (Marine Corps Archives)