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

Dec 09 , 2025

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

Jacklyn Harold Lucas was not yet seventeen when the deafening roar of grenades split the morning air on Iwo Jima. In the chaos of hell, he did something that no training covers: he threw himself on two live grenades, swallowing the blast to save the Marines around him. Bloodied, broken, but unbowed, he became the youngest Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II — a boy soldier forged in fire, whose scars spoke louder than any medal.

The Roots of Resolve

Born February 14, 1928, in Plymouth, North Carolina, Jack Lucas carried that southern steel in his bones. Raised in a working-class home, he ran with a fierce independence. There was no sanctuary from the call to serve — a deep, restless hunger for purpose.

He lied about his age, stowing away on a troop ship by the time he was fifteen, sneaking his way into the heart of the war. Faith was never far from him — his mother taught him scripture and prayer, and he later credited that grounding during his darkest hours. The armor he wore wasn’t just uniform; it was conviction.

The Inferno on Iwo Jima

February 1945. The volcanic sands of Iwo Jima boiled beneath relentless enemy fire. Lucas landed with the 5th Marine Division, a boot among battle-hardened veterans. But what his youth lacked in experience, he made up for in guts.

During a savage firefight, two grenades landed near his squad. Without hesitation, Jack jumped on them, absorbing the blast with his body. The explosions tore through his chest and legs. When medics found him, barely clinging to life, he whispered, “I saved them.”

He lost his right eye and suffered third-degree burns over half his body. Yet even in agony, his spirit refused to break.

Medal of Honor: Courage Beyond Years

On October 5, 1945, President Harry Truman pinned the Medal of Honor to a limping, barely eighteen-year-old Marine. The citation reads:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty… Lucas threw himself on two grenades… repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire… possessing a high order of intrepidity and valor."¹

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift remarked, “To me, Jack was the picture of the Marine Corps’ finest.”

In the years to come, Lucas’s story radiated through military history as a testament to raw, unyielded sacrifice.

A Legacy Woven in Pain and Purpose

His wounds never fully healed — Lucas bore the scars as silent witnesses to his sacrifice. But his story endures beyond the flesh. It’s a lesson writ in blood and fire: courage is not born in comfort; it’s carved from suffering.

He testified before Congress on veterans’ healthcare, never forgetting those left behind. Jack knew the cost of war was eternal — carried in the bodies and souls of those who survive.

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

This young Marine, just a boy swallowed by war, laid down everything so others might live. That is the legacy we carry.

Because courage isn’t measured by years but by the willingness to stand, to protect, and to endure beyond the pain. Jacklyn Harold Lucas’s leap into hell is a beacon — a blood-soaked reminder of the eternal debt we owe those who give all in the crucible of combat.

Sources

1. Naval History and Heritage Command, Medal of Honor Citation – Jacklyn Harold Lucas 2. Marine Corps History Division, The Battle for Iwo Jima 3. Truman Presidential Library, Medal of Honor Award Ceremony, 1945