Jack H Lucas

*courtesy of The Medal of Honor Society

On 20 February, 1945, the second day of an assault on Iwo Jima - one of the most ferocious battles of the Pacific War - Private Jack Lucas, only seventeen, and three other U.S. Marines attacked a Japanese pillbox.  When two enemy grenades landed in their midst, Lucas jumped on one grenade and pulled the other under his body, saving the lives of his comrades.  Lucas was blown into the air as his body was torn apart by 250 entrance wounds. He was so severely wounded that his team left him for dead.

Awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman, Lucas became the youngest Marine in U.S. history - and the youngest of all World War II service members - to receive the nation's highest military decoration. But his heroics at Iwo Jima are only part of this legend's astonishing story.  A child of the Depression, Lucas was underage when he joined the Marines and had arrived in Iwo Jima after stowing away on the boat heading for combat.  In the 1960s, Lucas reenlisted in the military, serving with the elite 82nd Airborne, after he survived a 3,500-foot fall after a parachute malfunction.

Now reissued for the battle's 75th anniversary, Lucas's classic memoir, Indestructible, tells the remarkable story of an extraordinary American, the likes of whom we may never see again.  

- - excerpted from the back cover of Indestructible with D.K. Drum

You can learn all about our nation's highest honor - The Congressional Medal of Honor - by visiting https://www.cmohs.org/

Additionally, vistit the World War II Museum and learn more about the Medal of Honor recipients from World War II