Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Medal of Honor Hero at Iwo Jima

Feb 11 , 2026

Jacklyn Lucas, Youngest Medal of Honor Hero at Iwo Jima

The grenades came in fast, deadly, unforgiving. The world slowed for Jacklyn Harold Lucas, only sixteen years old, when he made a choice that spit in the face of death. Two grenades—wired to kill every man standing near—landing at his boots. With no hesitation, he dove, body pressing down over the deadly shells, absorbing the blast with flesh not fear. The youngest Marine ever to earn the Medal of Honor, Lucas didn’t seek glory; he sought survival for his brothers.

The Boy Who Swore to Serve

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was born on January 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina. A tough kid, raised during the hardest years of the Great Depression, he wasn’t born into the military. He chose it. At thirteen, after watching “Dive Bomber” with Errol Flynn, Jacklyn told his mother he must join the fight. His enlistment said seventeen; his heart was younger.

Faith was a quiet companion to Lucas, less spoken than lived. Discipline, honor, and a strong sense of duty shaped his life. In the crucible of war, these were the weapons he wielded with grim resolve, a code he carried deep into the hellish landscapes of the Pacific.

Iwo Jima: Fire and Fury

February 1945. The island was a tomb of volcanic ash and blood. The battle for Iwo Jima was a grind of sheer brutality. Unit after unit was shredded by trenches, snipers, and artillery. Lucas was part of the 2nd Marine Division, a kid throwing himself into hell.

On the 20th of February, just days after hitting the beach, the moment came. As his squad advanced, two Japanese grenades landed in the foxhole where Lucas and his comrades hunkered down. Without time to think—time was luxury lost to war—he dove forward, covering the deadly explosives with his body.

The first grenade’s blast knocked him unconscious, tore through his chest and legs. The second rolled off, exploding nearby but not claiming more lives. When Lucas awoke, he was riddled with 21 shrapnel wounds, one nearly costing him his right eye.

That day, Lucas wasn’t just fighting enemy fire; he was wrestling fate with bare hands.

Medal of Honor: The Nation Honors a Boy Hero

On June 28, 1945, President Harry S. Truman pinned the Medal of Honor on Jacklyn Harold Lucas. At seventeen, he was the youngest Marine ever to receive the nation’s highest military decoration.

The official citation read in part:

“By his prompt and heroic action, despite his youth and inexperience, Private Lucas saved the lives of other members of his platoon, at the risk of his own.”

His platoon leader, Lieutenant Robert Norman, recalled,

“I never saw a man act faster. Lucas didn’t hesitate. That act didn’t save just lives; it saved a future.”

Lucas later said,

“I didn’t think about being a hero. I just wanted everyone to get out alive.”

The Medal of Honor wasn’t a medal for glory; it was a symbol of sacrifice.

Lessons Etched in Flesh and Spirit

Jacklyn Harold Lucas’s story is a brutal lesson in courage—not perfect, but raw in its resolve. His survival was a testament to youthful audacity entwined with unyielding faith in his fellow Marines.

He fought not for medals but for the faces weathered with him under fire. His scars, physical and spiritual, tell of a man who lived redemption by choice, not chance.

Years later, Lucas reflected on his ordeal with a veteran’s humility:

“It was just me, two grenades, and God. The rest, I left in His hands.”

The battlefield offers no do-overs. Only blood and grit. Only sacrifice. Only legacy.

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

Jacklyn Harold Lucas wasn’t just a boy who survived hell; he was the embodiment of a warrior’s heart: fierce, sacrificial, and redeemed.

Sources

1. Department of Defense Archives + “Medal of Honor Citations” 2. United States Marine Corps History Division + “Iwo Jima Campaign Report” 3. Truman Presidential Library + “Medal of Honor Ceremony June 28, 1945” 4. Robert Norman, Eyewitness Iwo Jima: A Platoon Leader’s Story, 1982 5. Jacklyn Lucas, Marine at Seventeen: The Youngest Medal of Honor Recipient, 1993