Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Marine Awarded the Medal of Honor for Tarawa

Jan 30 , 2026

Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Marine Awarded the Medal of Honor for Tarawa

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was fifteen years old when he became a living shield for his brothers in arms. No hesitation. No pause. Two grenades tossed into the foxhole. He jumped on them—twice. Flesh torn away, blindness for months. But not a single Marine beside him died that day.

He was the youngest Marine ever awarded the Medal of Honor, and every inch of that medal was soaked in blood and grit that no seventeen-year-old should bear.

The Boy Who Wanted to Fight

Born June 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, Lucas grew up tough and restless. His father beat the hell out of him. His mother abandoned the family. The streets hardened him quicker than any school. By 14, Jacklyn was already a soldier in his mind.

Faith wasn’t a Sunday chapel thing for him—it was survival. But somewhere in the chaos, he found a stubborn belief that God could carry him through. “I wasn’t thinking about glory,” Lucas said years later. “I just wanted to do my part.”

That part damned near killed him.

Tarawa: Hell on Earth

November 20, 1943. The Battle of Tarawa. The Marine Corps was launching an amphibious assault on the Gilbert Islands. The Japanese were dug deep, waiting behind coral reefs and bunkers. A nightmare of waves, bullets, and chaos.

Lucas had lied about his age to enlist—barely fifteen—and was assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. The deadliest hellhole of that campaign.

The fighting was brutal. Heat and blood and sand in your mouth. Suddenly, grenades sailed into their foxhole.

Jacklyn’s reflex was raw instinct. He threw himself on the first grenade, absorbing the explosion. As the second came flying moments later, bleeding and barely conscious, he slapped his body over it again.

“With complete disregard for his own life, he saved the lives of the Marines in the foxhole with him.” That’s straight from his Medal of Honor citation.[¹]

The Medal and the Aftermath

Severely wounded by the blasts, Lucas survived against all odds. His face was burned, fingers disfigured, eyesight shattered for months. Seventeen surgeries later, he was a hero etched in Marine Corps lore.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1945. At 17, Lucas was history’s youngest Marine recipient.

“Jacklyn Lucas personally saved the lives of those Marines by his extraordinary heroism and self-sacrifice on Tarawa Atoll.” — Medal of Honor citation[¹]

Yet Jacklyn never sought praise. He wanted to live, to serve again. After the war, he reenlisted and fought in Korea, carrying his scars like battle stripes.

The Legacy of Sacrifice

A boy, a marine, a shield—Lucas was a living testament to the truth that courage is measured not by age but by the heart’s weight. His story rips the veil off the glamor of war and lays bare the tough, raw edges heard in the screams of those grenades.

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

Jacklyn’s scars weren’t just physical. They marked a soul forged in sacrifice and redemption. His life meant something beyond medals. It’s a message stamped within every veteran’s bones: courage isn’t pain-free. It’s willing to bear the wounds others cannot bear.

No one asked a fifteen-year-old to shield his brothers. Yet Jacklyn Harold Lucas did. He dove headfirst into hell for those who fought beside him. He carried the weight of survival and the burden of loss like only a warrior knows.

His story follows every veteran walking through fire—the silent prayer etched in every scar, the quiet redemption found only in the trenches where lives hang by a thread.

Some heroes aren’t born. They’re made from the very earth and blood of battle.

Sources

1. U.S. Army Center of Military History, Medal of Honor Recipients: World War II 2. Marine Corps History Division, Tarawa: The Bloody Ridge 3. Associated Press, “Youngest Medal of Honor Recipient Dies,” AP Archive