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 fifteen years old when he made death pause. He was too young for war, but the war didn’t care. In the smoke-choked hell of Iwo Jima, two grenades hit the ground near him and two fellow Marines. Without hesitation, Lucas threw himself on those deadly orbs — twice — smothering their fury with his own body. The explosions shredded his chest and knocked him down, but saved those brothers-in-arms around him. The youngest Marine ever to receive the Medal of Honor earned that title in blood and bone.

Background & Faith

Born 1928 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Jacklyn Lucas was a scrawny kid with a wiry defiance forged in the Depression. His father, a coal miner, instilled a blue-collar resolve, but it was the scriptures that anchored the boy’s soul.

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

Those words lit a fire inside Lucas, a fierce conviction: some things are worth dying for. Before he was sixteen, he lied about his age to enlist in the Marines. He knew the price, yet chose the fight anyway. Faith wasn’t a shield—it was a call.

The Battle That Defined Him

February 20, 1945. The volcanic sands of Iwo Jima were drenched in fire. Lucas was barely a Marine, barely a man. The 5th Marine Division had landed, but the mountain loomed with hidden death.

At one point during combat, enemy grenades landed among a group of Marines. Lucas’s instincts screamed — no calculation, just action. He threw himself on a grenade, absorbing the blast with his chest, severely wounded but alive. Not done.

Seconds later, a second grenade landed. Without hesitation, he repeated the act.

His body became a human shield twice over, ravaged by wounds: skull fractures, broken bones, punctured lungs. Medics counted him out. But Lucas fought on—refused to die on that bloodied sand.

“Lucas was the only man known to have thrown himself on two grenades and survived,” reported the Navy’s official citation.

Recognition

After two months of excruciating recovery, Lucas’s heroic deeds came to the world’s attention. On June 28, 1945, at just 17 years old, he received the Medal of Honor from President Truman.

The citation was sharp and clear:

For gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.

Marine Corps Commandant Alexander Vandegrift said then:

“You are a credit to the Marine Corps, and the Nation can be proud of your outstanding courage.”

Lucas’s story inspired countless Marines—to this day, his name carries the weight of ultimate sacrifice and valor. The scars he bore were a testament, not a burden.

Legacy & Lessons

Jacklyn Lucas’s legacy cuts across generations—a young boy who became a man in the furnace of combat. His story embodies raw courage, but also the quiet endurance of wounds unseen: the pain behind medals, the cost that war extracts.

He did not seek glory; he answered a higher calling—to protect his brothers, to place their lives above his own. His faith sustained him then, and fueled his later years helping wounded veterans.

“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).

Today, when the world wants easy heroes and sanitized stories, remember Lucas. Remember the young Marine who crawled into fire twice, who bore the scars of that choice, and survived to remind us all that courage is raw, sacrificial, and redemptive.

He carried the weight of death and came back bearing life—a beacon for those who fight and for those who wait.

This is the price of freedom. This is the bone-deep meaning of sacrifice.

Sources

1. United States Marine Corps. Jacklyn Harold Lucas Medal of Honor Citation. 2. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command. Profiles in Valor: Jacklyn Lucas. 3. Department of Defense. Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II.