Jacklyn Lucas at Iwo Jima Youngest Marine Medal of Honor Recipient

Dec 30 , 2025

Jacklyn Lucas at Iwo Jima Youngest Marine Medal of Honor Recipient

Jacklyn Harold Lucas Jr. was all of seventeen when hell found him at Iwo Jima. A kid barely a man, charging into a storm of blood and fire without a second thought. Two grenades, tossed like death’s dice, landed at his feet. Without hesitation—without regard for his own skin—he dove onto them. Flesh and bone, saving the lives of those around him with nothing but raw courage and an iron will.

The Boy Who Would Be Marine

Born in 1928, in a small town in North Carolina, Jack Lucas grew up chasing the wild edges of youth. He lied about his age to get into the Corps at fifteen. Not because he sought glory, but because he was driven by something deeper — a warrior’s call, a burden of purpose too heavy for most boys. The Marines took one look and let him run, because sometimes valor defies paperwork.

Faith was Jack’s anchor. His mother raised him on scripture and prayer. Psalm 23, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...” was more than words; it was armor. His sacrifice later stood as a living testament to that faith—God with him in every hellish second.

The Battle That Defined Him

February 20, 1945. Iwo Jima. The island was a crucible of lava rock and blood, a wrecking yard for men who dared. Jack’s unit was pinned down by fierce enemy fire, the air thick with smoke and the screams of the fallen.

Then came the grenades: two bounced over the shell crater wall and landed squarely among his brothers-in-arms. Jack didn’t hesitate. He lunged flat out onto the grenades. He took the blast, the shrapnel tore into his body—arms blown apart, severe burns biting into his chest and legs.

He survived. Against all odds, the Marines pulled him from the dirt, broken but alive.

Honors Hard-Earned in Fire

Jack Lucas received the Medal of Honor, the youngest Marine ever to do so in World War II.[^1] His official citation speaks plainly of the moment:

“With supreme gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty, he saved the lives of his comrades by absorbing the deadly fragments of two enemy grenades with his own body.”

Gen. Clifton B. Cates, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, later said, “That act was one of the bravest moments I’ve ever witnessed in all my service.”[^2]

Legacy Written in Scars

Jacklyn Lucas never saw himself as a hero. The boy with scars across half his body carried his wounds silently. In interviews decades later, he humbly said, “I just did what needed to be done, no matter how young I was.”

His story teaches what real courage looks like—not reckless bravado, but selfless sacrifice when all else fails. The youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor became a symbol of redemption for the cost of war, a reminder that sometimes salvation comes through the chaos of violence.

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

War carved its legacy deep into Jack Lucas’s flesh and soul. But in that hellish moment on Iwo Jima, amid fire and death, he etched a truth eternal: The measure of a warrior is not the years on his stripe—but the depths of his sacrifice.

His story is a gospel shot through the smoke—raw, wrenching, and forever redemptive.

[^1]: Naval History and Heritage Command, Medal of Honor Recipients, World War II [^2]: U.S. Marine Corps Historical Division, General Clifton B. Cates Oral History