Jacklyn (Jack) H. Lucas

Jacklyn H. Lucas

Jacklyn Harrell “Jack” Lucas was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, on 14 February 1928. Determined to serve during the Second World War, he falsified his age and his mother’s signature and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on 8 August 1942. He was only 14 years old, although his powerful build allowed him to pass for the 17-year-old he claimed to be.

After recruit training at Parris Island, Lucas received instruction as a heavy machine-gun crewman and was sent to the Pacific. When his true age became known, he was assigned to a base depot in Hawaii rather than a combat unit. Frustrated at being kept from the fighting, he left his post without authorization in January 1945 and stowed away aboard a transport carrying the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, to Iwo Jima. He eventually surrendered himself to Captain Robert H. Dunlap, who permitted him to remain with Company C as a rifleman. Lucas celebrated his 17th birthday aboard ship on 14 February 1945.

On 20 February, the day after the landing on Iwo Jima, Lucas and three other Marines were moving through a twisting ravine when they encountered a Japanese patrol. During the ensuing firefight, two enemy grenades landed among the Marines. Without hesitation, Lucas threw himself over one grenade and pulled the second beneath his body. One exploded, grievously wounding him, while the other failed to detonate. His self-sacrifice shielded all three of his companions from the blast.

Initially believed dead, Lucas was found alive and evacuated. He endured numerous operations and carried approximately 200 pieces of shrapnel in his body for the remainder of his life. His unauthorized absence was removed from his record, his rank of private first class was restored, and he was medically discharged in September 1945.

President Harry S. Truman presented Lucas with the Medal of Honor at the White House on 5 October 1945. At 17, he was the youngest Marine ever to receive the decoration and the youngest American serviceman awarded the Medal of Honor for service during the Second World War.

Lucas later earned a business degree from High Point University. Remarkably, he entered the United States Army in 1961, qualified as a paratrooper and served with the 82nd Airborne Division, eventually attaining the rank of captain. He left the Army in 1965.

Jack Lucas died from leukemia at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on 5 June 2008, aged 80. The United States Navy subsequently named the guided-missile destroyer USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125) in his honour. The ship was commissioned on 7 October 2023.

Medal of Honor citation

Lucas was decorated for:

“Conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.”

The official citation records that, when two grenades landed among his four-man group, Lucas deliberately covered one with his body and pulled the other beneath him. By absorbing the explosion, he protected his comrades from almost certain injury or death and enabled them to defeat the Japanese patrol and continue their advance. His courage, initiative and spirit of self-sacrifice reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.

The complete official citation is preserved by the United States Marine Corps History Division⁠. Biographical details are also confirmed by the Naval History and Heritage Command⁠ and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society⁠.

Name note: The official Marine Corps and Naval History records give his middle name as Harrell. Some later sources, including the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and Wikipedia, render it as Harold. For an authoritative profile, I would use Jacklyn Harrell Lucas.