Jacklyn Lucas the Youngest Marine to Earn the Medal of Honor

Oct 03 , 2025

Jacklyn Lucas the Youngest Marine to Earn the Medal of Honor

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was just 17—barely a man—when he became the youngest Marine in history to earn the Medal of Honor. His body absorbed the shock of not one, but two live grenades, saving the lives of his brothers beside him. The battlefield spat fire and death. Lucas stood between his men and hell, a kid with an iron soul forged in chaos.

Roots of Steel and Faith

Born August 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, Jacklyn Lucas grew up with grit pressed into his bones. The son of a machinist and a seamstress, young Jack was no stranger to hard work. From the start, he showed a stubborn streak. He idolized the Marine Corps—the few, the proud, not just a slogan but a creed.

His faith, nurtured in the humble pews of his local church, gave him a moral anchor. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” John 15:13 echoed quietly in his heart. He didn’t yet know the full weight those words would demand.

Lucas lied about his age to enlist in 1942, desperate to join the fight against the Axis powers. He was a boy chasing a man’s war.

The Inferno at Iwo Jima

February 1945. The island of Iwo Jima—a volcanic furnace and bloodbath. The Japanese had turned the rocky soil into a maze of caves and pillboxes. The 5th Marine Division stormed ashore under relentless artillery and machine-gun fire.

Lucas was a rifleman with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines. The air tasted of sulfur and gunpowder, the ground slick with blood and guts. His platoon was pinned down by a well-placed grenade.

Two grenades landed among them—immediate death or heroic sacrifice. Without hesitation, Lucas dove upon the first grenade, slamming it to the ground and covering it with his body. As a second grenade landed, he did it again, bearing both detonations.

When he finally surfaced, four fractures crisscrossed his limbs and he bore shrapnel scars over his chest. Yet, the fifteen Marines around him survived. They called him “the one-man army who saved lives with his bare skin.”

Medal of Honor and a Nation's Praise

For his valor at Iwo Jima, Lucas received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman. His citation read:

“By his extraordinary heroism and unyielding bravery, Private First Class Lucas saved the lives of his fellow Marines. His selfless actions above and beyond the call of duty reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.”

At just 17 and a half, he was history’s youngest Medal of Honor recipient from the Marine Corps. Commanders and comrades spoke of his fearless resolve.

Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B. ‘Chesty’ Puller famously said—“Few men have faced death twice and lived to tell the story, fewer still with the courage of young Jacklyn.”

Legacy Carved in Blood

Jacklyn Lucas never shrugged off the cost of his sacrifice. He lived a life marked by the scars of war but also the quiet redemption of survival. He often reflected on the spiritual weight of laying down his life for others.

He carried the burden and the blessing of his actions. “I wasn’t brave,” he once said, “I was scared like hell. The difference is I did what I had to.”

His story reminds veterans and civilians alike that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the will to act in spite of it. It is the raw, sacrificial love that turns boys into heroes and scars into badges of honor.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.” — Psalm 28:7

Lucas’s legacy is not just medals or headlines. It is a call to bear one another’s burdens, no matter the cost. The battlefield is unforgiving. But the soldier who stands for his brothers, even a boy with the body of a man, becomes eternal in sacrifice.

Sources

1. Naval History and Heritage Command, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II 2. U.S. Marine Corps History Division, Iwo Jima Campaign and Medal of Honor Citations 3. Truman Library, Presidential Medal of Honor Ceremony, 1945 4. Puller, Lewis B., Forty Years a Marine (Memoirs and Correspondence)