Posted on 06/05/2008 9:21:44 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
JACKSON, Miss. - 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, Miss., hospital. He was 80.
Lucas had been battling cancer. Ponda Lee at Moore Funeral Service said the funeral home was told he died before dawn.
Jacklyln "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 was nearly killed when one exploded.
"A couple of grenades rolled into the trench," Lucas said in an Associated Press interview 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 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.
In the AP interview, written as a first-person account under his name, he recalled the months he spent in a hospital.
"Soon as I rest up, I imagine I'll run for president," the story concluded. "Ain't I the hero, though?"
Big for his age and eager to serve, Lucas forged his mother's signature on an enlistment waiver and joined the Marines at 14. Military censors discovered his age through a letter to his 15-year-old girlfriend.
"They had him driving a truck in Hawaii because his age was discovered and they threatened to send him home," said D.K. Drum, who wrote Lucas' story in the 2006 book "Indestructible."
"He said if they sent him home, he would just join the Army."
Lucas eventually stowed away aboard a Navy ship headed for combat in the Pacific Ocean. He turned himself in to avoid being listed as a deserter and volunteered to fight, and the officers on board allowed him to reach his goal of fighting the Japanese.
"They did not know his age. He didn't give it up and they didn't ask," Drum said.
Born in Plymouth, N.C., on Feb. 14, 1928, Edwards was a 13-year-old cadet captain in a military academy when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
"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."
After the war, Lucas earned a business degree from High Point University in North Carolina and raised, processed and sold beef in the Washington, D.C., area. 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.
"He was the last one out of the airplane and the first one on the ground," Drum said.
He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in April and spent his last days in the hospital with family and friends, including his wife, Ruby, standing vigil.
In a March 7, 2008 file photo, Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas, 80, salutes Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as she acknowledges him during a campaign stop at the train depot in Hattiesburg, Miss. Lucas, who, at 17 was the youngest Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor following action in Iwo Jima, is reported to be gravely ill Monday, June 2, 2009, at a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Damn...it was just yesterday when I read that he was gravely ill. He was quite a kid back then.
A great loss. I collect MOH autographs and his is one of my most treasured.
Semper Fi, Jack. A warrior to the core.
Last night, I watched the DVD, “Warriors...In Their Own Words” narrated by Kelsey Grammer. I recommend it one and all. Jack Lucas certainly fits their description.
I’ve got Mitchell Paige’s.....check the bottom of my FReep page.
My heart swells with pride knowing warriors like these fought for the United States of America.
Rest in peace, hero.
June 3 .. He was a fighter to the end.
Teen WWII hero, now 80, gravely ill with cancer
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025415/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025416/posts
“On a training jump, both of his parachutes failed.
“He was the last one out of the airplane and the first one on the ground,” Drum said.”
Just DAMN!
I’m just as impressed that he became a paratrooper in his 30’s as he was a Marine at 15.
Duly noted. ;-) He wasn’t the only one that fibbed to get in the action.
to overcome his fear of heights.. became a paratrooper in his 30s.. Oh yeah, that’ll do it. quite the man.
I wonder what unit he was with?
Do you have Raymond G. Davis?
Rest easy, brave hero...
I received this earlier from a Freeper. I think this is an appropriate thread to place this video on:
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/706270
God bless all our American heroes; those now serving and those that are now gone including my dear father, David, who served in China/Burma/India during World War II. Jack now walks with God as do all America’s patriots that sacrificed to keep us free.
Corrected perfectly. An incredible man.
Semper Fi.
God Bless our Heroes.
Prayers for Jack.
A victorious honor guard received him above,
and now he stands at his eternal watch, for
which I am profoundly grateful.
Rest in peace.
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