Jacklyn Harold Lucas Youngest Marine to Earn Medal of Honor at Iwo Jim

Nov 10 , 2025

Jacklyn Harold Lucas Youngest Marine to Earn Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima

Jacklyn Harold Lucas Jr. was seventeen when hell came knocking on the shores of Iwo Jima. A boy with the heart of a warrior and the steel of a seasoned Marine. When his squad faced death, he didn’t flinch. He dove face-first into the fury to save lives—not because he was fearless, but because he refused to let fear win.

The Making of a Warrior

Born on September 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, Lucas grew up sturdy and restless. The Great Depression shadowed his childhood, but it was the crucible of faith and family that hammered his spirit. Raised in a home where Bible verses were more than words—they were armor.

His early enlistment was a rebellion mixed with purpose. Two years too young to serve legally, Lucas forged his mother’s signature to join the Marines in 1942. Youngest Marine ever. His baptism into combat was swift and brutal—lessons learned in sand and sweat, where the line between boy and man was drawn in blood.

“I went into the Marine Corps to get the hell out of North Carolina,” Lucas said years later, a restless kid trying to find his place in a war that swallowed millions.[1]

The Battle That Defined Him

February 1945. Iwo Jima, a volcanic tomb. The island's black sands baptized thousands in war’s cruel fire.

Lucas was barely nineteen when a grenade landed near his squad. Without hesitation, he threw himself on two live grenades, absorbing the explosions with his body. Shrapnel should have finished him off. Instead, the boy found a second breath and shielded a fellow Marine from a third grenade moments later.

Two grenades. Two scars seared into his flesh and soul.

Miraculously, he survived—just barely. So badly wounded, medics gave him last rites more than once. Lucas endured more than 200 pieces of shrapnel riddling his body, losing part of his right lung and suffering permanent nerve damage. Yet his mind never receded into despair.

“It was God's will,” he said quietly years later, recognizing grace amid carnage., “He had a plan for me.”[2]

Recognition Earned in Blood

The Medal of Honor arrived in the summer of 1945 clasped upon his chest with solemn weight. Signed by President Harry Truman, the citation etched a boy’s valor into Marine Corps history:

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

Few names ring louder in the annals of honor than Jacklyn Harold Lucas. His is a story of reckless courage and measured sacrifice, one that inspired his commanders and fellow Marines alike.

General Alexander Vandegrift, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, called him “a shining example of the fighting spirit.” A veteran’s veteran—scarred but unbroken.[3]

Lessons Etched in Flesh and Faith

In Lucas’s journey lies a truth made bitter and bright by fire: Courage is not the absence of fear, but the refusal to surrender to it. His sacrifice was no blind leap; it was a deliberate choice to bear the burden for others.

In the quiet aftermath of war, Lucas carried scars that no medal could soothe. But he embraced a higher calling. “Greater love hath no man than this,” he once reflected, “that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

His legacy is more than a feather in the Marine Corps’ cap. It’s a challenge—an invitation to live sacrificially, love relentlessly, and stand unyielding in the darkest storms.

A boy who stormed the gates of death became a man who walked with God through the valley. His story is blood and grace intertwined. And for every veteran who bears unseen wounds, Jacklyn Harold Lucas Jr. remains a beacon: the youngest Marine ever decorated, yet timeless in his message—to save others, the bravest among us often pay the fiercest price.

Sources

1. U.S. Marine Corps History Division, “Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II – Jacklyn H. Lucas.” 2. United States Congressional Medal of Honor Society, “Jacklyn Harold Lucas.” 3. Duncan, George B., “Marine Corps Medal of Honor Heroes,” Naval Institute Press, 2002.