Posted on 06/05/2008 4:07:44 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, hospital. He was 80.
Jack Lucas, seen here being acknowleged by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in March, had been battling cancer.
Lucas had been battling cancer. Ponda Lee at Moore Funeral Service said the funeral home was told he died before dawn.
Jacklyn "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades, and he was nearly killed when one exploded.
"A couple of grenades rolled into the trench," Lucas said shortly before he received the medal from President Truman in October 1945. "I hollered to my pals to get out and did a Superman dive at the grenades. I wasn't a Superman after I got hit. I let out one helluva scream when that thing went off."
He was left with more than 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and in every major organ, and he endured 26 surgeries in the months after Iwo Jima.
He was the youngest serviceman to win the Medal of Honor in any conflict other than the Civil War.
"By his inspiring action and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice, he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death but also enabled them to rout the Japanese patrol and continue the advance," the Medal of Honor citation said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
out=our
Semper Fi Marine!
Go guard the streets of Heaven.
God bless him, and his generation. They truly were the greatest.
“I would not settle for watching from the sidelines when the United States was in such desperate need of support from its citizens,” Lucas said in “Indestructible.” “Everyone was needed to do his part and I could not do mine by remaining in North Carolina.”
What more is there to be said? This young man was a hero long before he jumped on the grenade. What an example he set.
“Go guard the streets of Heaven.”
What will he be guarding it against?
God Speed Marine.We will try to keep this country, that you fought so bravely for,intact.
Wow read the whole article. He was everything that is so sorely missing from so many today.
I don't know but May God have mercy on anyone that tries to fight a Marine Like Jack Lucas on Heaven Scene.
The song is allegory. And more attuned to folks raised up in a Christian church.
And, unless I'm wrong over a century old. Some Marine will correct me.
/johnny
Indeed. A grateful nation mourns.
Jacklyn "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades... He was left with more than 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and in every major organ, and he endured 26 surgeries in the months after Iwo Jima. He was the youngest serviceman to win the Medal of Honor in any conflict other than the Civil War.
A true hero. RIP
In the 1960s, he joined the Army and became a paratrooper, Drum said, to conquer his fear of heights. On a training jump, both of his parachutes failed.How did this guy live to 20 or 40 much less 80?"He was the last one out of the airplane and the first one on the ground," Drum said.
Do or do not, there is no try.
He had a task, maybe?
I'm glad he did.
/johnny
I knew that death is but a door.
I knew what we were fighting for:
Peace for the kids, our brothers freed,
A kinder world, a cleaner breed.
I’m but the son my mother bore,
A simple man, and nothing more.
But-God of strength and gentleness,
Be pleased to make me nothing less.
Help me, O God, when death is near
To mock the haggard face of fear,
That when I fall-if fall I must-
My soul may triumph in the dust.
Too bad the raised the Most Self Indulgent and Selfish Generation.
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