Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Marine to Earn Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima

Feb 05 , 2026

Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Marine to Earn Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was just sixteen when he made a choice that no boy should face, but one that made him a legend. Amidst the shattered sands of Iwo Jima, he dived onto not one, but two enemy grenades—his young body a shield against death itself. Two blasts ripped through the air, but Lucas lived. His heart beat not just with youth, but with iron resolve.

The Boy Who Became Marine

Born August 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, Jacklyn Lucas was no stranger to hardship. Raised by a single mother, he wrestled with a restless spirit and a fierce desire to serve. The headlines screamed war; young men answered the call. But Lucas? He refused to let age define him.

He forged falsified documents, claimed to be eighteen, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942. A boy chasing valor in a man’s war. His faith, quietly held, offered a compass through the storm. Friends remembered him as “hard as nails but with a soft heart,” a kid who knew the cost of sacrifice — watched over by the scripture he carried in his pocket:

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” — John 15:13

Iwo Jima: Fire, Fury, and Flesh

February 1945. The island boiled in chaos. Mount Suribachi loomed above a hellscape. Lucas was among the first waves ashore, part of the 1st Marine Division assault.

Bullets screamed, shells blotted the daylight. Enemy grenades rained on his platoon. Suddenly, two grenades landed mere feet from his comrades. Without hesitation, Lucas threw himself atop both, absorbing the blasts with his body. The world tore apart around him.

He was instantly gravely wounded — hands shredded, thighs blasted, his body a canvas of pain and sacrifice. Medics doubted he’d survive. But survive he did, a living testament to the raw price of heroism.

Medal of Honor: The Youngest Marine

On May 9, 1945, President Harry S. Truman pinned the Medal of Honor on Private Lucas. At 17, he holds the record as the youngest Marine ever awarded the nation’s highest military decoration.

His citation does not mince words:

“His indomitable courage and quick thinking saved the lives of at least two other Marines, and inspired his comrades to great heroism under terrible enemy fire.”¹

Marine Commandant General Alexander Archer Vandegrift said of Lucas:

“No finer Marine has ever lived.”²

Fellow survivors carried scars deeper than wounds—the memory of a kid who laid down his future without hesitation.

Legacy Written in Blood and Faith

Jacklyn Lucas survived the war, but the battle stayed with him. His scars tell stories that medals can’t. He struggled with pain, loss, the ghosts of combat, yet never lost sight of the meaning behind sacrifice.

“If you live through hell,” he said once, “you owe the ones who didn’t a life well fought.”

His story now stands carved in history as a lesson not just about courage—but the cost of war, the price of brotherhood, and the grace that follows brokenness.

In a world too quick to forget, Lucas’s shield of flesh endures—reminding us all that true valor is selfless, sometimes childlike in its purity, and always forged in the crucible of love and loss.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” — Joshua 1:9

Sources

1. U.S. Marine Corps History Division, Medal of Honor Citation: Jacklyn Harold Lucas 2. Vandegrift, Alexander A., quoted in Marine Corps Gazette, July 1948 issue