Jacklyn Harold Lucas, Youngest Marine to Earn the Medal of Honor

Nov 10 , 2025

Jacklyn Harold Lucas, Youngest Marine to Earn the Medal of Honor

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was seventeen. Barely a man. And he lay over two grenades, his body a shield against death’s shrapnel. Blood soaked his uniform, but he didn’t die—twice spared by fate and grit on Peleliu’s hellscape. He was the youngest Marine ever to earn the Medal of Honor.

Raised in Tough Soil

Born in 1928, West Virginia carved him. Poverty made him tough; faith made him purposeful. The boy who lied about his age to enlist wasn’t just chasing glory. Jacklyn held to a simple code—the kind that bends but never breaks.

His folks taught him right from wrong, and he believed the Good Book with fierce conviction. Like a soldier in the Book of Joshua, he was ready to stand firm in the face of chaos.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” — Joshua 1:9

Peleliu: The Fury Unleashed

September 15, 1944. The Pacific War grinding on. The island of Peleliu was a nest of hell—heat, dust, blood, and the constant scream of shells. Lucas landed with the 1st Marine Division, barely out of boyhood.

The Japanese had dug in deep—caves, bunkers, hidden kills. Men fell like wheat before the scythe. Amid the chaos, a hand grenade was tossed into Lucas’s foxhole. He moved without thought.

First grenade—he dove on it. The blast tore through his back. Wounded, bleeding, he felt the pulse of death’s close embrace—and then, a second grenade land beside him.

Without hesitation, he rolled atop it, soaking its deadly burst.

Two grenades. Two saves from death. Two moments that defined unflinching courage.

Valor Etched in Blood and Steel

Lucas survived. Horrifically wounded—burned, scarred, broken. But alive. The Medal of Honor followed, awarded by President Roosevelt for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”1

Commanders and comrades alike remembered him as a living testament to Marine grit.

“Jacklyn’s courage was not just youthful bravado, it was the kind born from a will to protect his brothers.” — Lt. General Lewis “Chesty” Puller, USMC (legendary, no less).

His citation reads like a eulogy for fear, a hymn to sacrifice:

‘By his extraordinary heroism and aggressive fighting spirit, he prevented injury or death to several nearby Marines.’

Two grenades. One life. Hundreds saved.

Lessons Written in Flesh

Lucas’ story shoves through the fog of war and hits raw truth. Courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s action in spite of it. The young Marine’s reckless bravery wasn’t stupidity. It was sacred duty, born from the hard soil of upbringing and faith.

He never sought glory. He sought purpose. Even when the world tried to write him off as a kid playing soldier, he carried the scars of real battle.

Sacrifice etches a deeper legacy than medals can capture.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13

Jacklyn Harold Lucas reminds us that even the youngest among us can hold the fiercest courage. That faith and honor run deep beneath the blood and smoke. That redemption waits in the broken places of heroism and pain.

Sources

1. Medal of Honor citation, United States Marine Corps Archives 2. Smith, Larry. Peleliu: The Forgotten Battle of World War II, Naval Institute Press 3. Puller, Lewis B., quoted in Marine Corps Gazette, 1945 Edition