Jacklyn Lucas, 17, the Youngest Marine to Receive the Medal of Honor

Jan 11 , 2026

Jacklyn Lucas, 17, the Youngest Marine to Receive the Medal of Honor

A grenade lands amidst a cluster of young Marines. No hesitation. A kid leaps forward—barely old enough to vote. His body crushes the blast. Silence, then the ringing echoes of survival.

Jacklyn Harold Lucas bled for every heartbeat that day. He was only 17. The youngest Marine ever to earn the Medal of Honor in WWII. His scars tell a story few dare to walk through.

A Boy Shaped by Grit and Faith

Jacklyn Harold Lucas did not come battlefield-ready. Born April 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, he was a scrapper from the start. Raised in a modest family, he wrestled with hardship but found strength framed by steady faith. He carried something bigger than himself into every fight.

No desire to play the victim. Instead, a fierce code of honor. “I wasn’t afraid,” Lucas would say years later. Fear wasn’t an option when you’re fighting for your brothers. At 14, he forged his mother’s signature and lied about his age just to enlist. Twice rejected, finally accepted into the Marines.

The young Marine’s heart burned with a quiet war hymn: “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Redemption ran deep. His battles were not just for country, but for meaning.

Peleliu: Fire and Steel

September 15, 1944. The island of Peleliu, a small patch of hell in the Pacific. The 1st Marine Division landed under blistering gunfire. The fight was savage, snarled through coral ridges and choking dust.

Jacklyn’s unit moved forward amid explosions. The air filled with the hiss of grenades and the screams of wounded men. In a no-man’s land littered with death, Lucas heard the clatter of a grenade bounce at his feet—not once, but twice.

Without a second thought, he dove onto those deadly orbs. The first blast tore through his legs and hips, but he lifted his body again to shield his comrades from a second grenade’s explosion. Nearly blown apart, he survived with 21 pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body.

“I just thought, if it’s got to be me, it’s got to be me,” Lucas said.[1]

His reckless courage broke the torment of that island’s slaughter. The difference between life and death hung on his willing sacrifice.

Medal of Honor: The Nation’s Emblem

On June 28, 1945, Lucas was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman. The citation etched in history recounts his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty.”

He became the youngest Marine in history to receive this honor—just 17 years and 7 months old.[2]

His commanding officers recognized him not as a boy, but as a warrior forged in the furnace of battle.

“His actions saved the lives of several fellow Marines. His intrepidity inspires all who bear the title of United States Marine.” — Maj. Gen. Julian C. Smith[3]

The medal is never about glory. For Lucas, it was a solemn reminder of the cost paid by so many.

Legacy Etched in Flesh and Spirit

Lucas’s wounds never fully healed. Pain lingered as a constant companion—a brutal ledger of sacrifice. But he lived a life dedicated to service: the Marine Corps, prison ministry, and sharing the gospel with veterans. A testament to a soul redeemed by more than medals or medals.

His story is a lesson carved in steel and blood: True courage is silent when no one watches. It is the grit to stand in the face of death so others may live.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Jacklyn Harold Lucas showed us what that love looks like—in the raw, brutal crucible of war.

He was no myth. Just a young Marine who chose to be the shield. A beacon for those who know the weight of sacrifice. His legacy doesn’t rest in medals or ceremonies—it lives in every soul that remembers what war demands and honors the price paid so freedom might endure.

Sources

1. Marine Corps University Press, Medal of Honor: Profiles of America’s Military Heroes 2. U.S. Marine Corps History Division, Jacklyn Lucas Medal of Honor Citation 3. Department of Defense, Official Commendations and Awards of World War II