Jacklyn Lucas, 17, Youngest WWII Medal of Honor Recipient

Feb 06 , 2026

Jacklyn Lucas, 17, Youngest WWII Medal of Honor Recipient

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was no older than a teenager on a battlefield soaked in fire and fear. At seventeen, where most boys scratched out their first marks in high school, Lucas lay wounded after diving onto enemy grenades—twice—to shield his fellow Marines. His body, riddled with shrapnel, became a living barrier between death and survival. That night, heroism was not measured by age but by the steel in his marrow.

The Boy Who Would Be Marine

Born in 1928, Lucas grew up in Plymouth, North Carolina—a place stitched with hard-working families and quiet faith. Raised under the watchful eye of a devout mother, he carried a code engraved by scripture and grit.

“I believe that God had me there for a reason,” Lucas later confessed. His sense of purpose wasn’t born out of youthful glory but from a spiritual conviction driving him to serve beyond self.

The young man lied about his age to enlist in the Marines in 1942. At fifteen, he was too young—officially. Yet, the call to duty hammered louder than any law.

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

That day in the bloody trenches of Iwo Jima, that Scripture wasn't just words. It was his heartbeat.

The Inferno on Iwo Jima

February 20, 1945. The island was a crucible, swallowing thousands under a brutal volcanic sky. Lucas was with the 1st Marine Division, a formation tasked with taking one of the deadliest strongholds of the Pacific War.

In the hellscape of black sand and blood, Lucas carried grenades in his hands. When the enemy lobbed two grenades toward his squad, time snapped.

He dove on the first grenade, using his body as a shield. Explosion ripped through his chest and legs. Still groaning in agony, he saw a second grenade, seconds from killing those around him.

Without thought, he laughed, then dove onto the second grenade too. The blast tore up his left hand and groin. Pain was a secondary enemy now—his decision had turned death into borrowed time for his comrades.

Wounds of War, Honors of Courage

Lucas spent months in hospitals recovering from thirty-three separate wounds. His body bore the seal of sacrifice, testament to a will forged in the fire of combat.

The Medal of Honor could not be given lightly. On June 28, 1945, President Harry Truman pinned it to Lucas’s chest — making him the youngest Marine and the youngest Medal of Honor recipient of World War II at just 17 years old.

His citation reads in part:

“By his unyielding courage and intrepid fighting spirit, Private Lucas saved the lives of two men which unquestionably inspired all who witnessed his conspicuous gallantry.”[^1]

The Commandant of the Marine Corps later called Lucas’s actions “the most remarkable feat of heroism of any Marine of his age in the history of the Corps.”[^2]

Blood, Redemption, and Legacy

Jacklyn Lucas wore his scars like a testament—not a trophy. War had marked him, but it did not define him. From his hospital bed, he talked about faith, survival, and the price of protecting others.

“There’s nothing special about me,” he often said, “just a kid who did what had to be done.”

That humility carries a gospel more powerful than any medal. The boy who bore two explosions reminded the world that courage is found in moments when death is near—but love is fiercer.

Lucas later worked as a lifeguard, a steelworker, a lighthouse keeper. Quiet work. Steady work. The kind that honors survival as much as valor.

To every veteran, every soldier who steps into the abyss: the story of Jacklyn Harold Lucas is a bloody beacon. It’s proof the youngest among us can wield the oldest weapon—selflessness—and forge from it a legacy of hope.

We carry the broken and still stand because of men like Lucas.

He laid down his very life—not to be remembered in medals, but to remind us that sacrifice is the currency of freedom and grace.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life… shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 8:38-39

Sources

[^1]: U.S. Congress, Medal of Honor Citation for Jacklyn H. Lucas [^2]: U.S. Marine Corps History Division, Profiles of Valor: Jacklyn Harold Lucas