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Another hero goes to rest
by Bruce Salisbury
I have always admired those men who received the Congressional Medal Of Honor. I have known several of these men and they are all quiet and gentlemanly and not given to brag.
Our friend Jacklyn Harold “Jack” Lucas died June 5, 2008 at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and while he was eligible to be buried in Arlington Cemetery he chose to be laid to rest in Highland Cemetery near to his family and friends.
Jack joined the US Marine Corps at age 14 and managed to make the Corps believe he was of legal age. Then on 14 February 1945, just five days after he turned seventeen Jack hit the beach with forty thousand other Marines on Iwo Jima. Five thousand of these men became casualties the first day of combat.
The next morning while he and his buddies were involved in close combat, Two Japanese grenades landed near the Marine next to him. Jack covered the grenades with his body. One grenade was a dud but the other one exploded and wounded him severely.
Jack survived and after hospitalization in Guam and San Francisco he was discharged in September 1945. On October 5, at the age of seventeen, he received the Medal Of Honor from President Harry Truman, making him the youngest recipient since the Civil War. Jack then kept a promise to his mother by going back to school – a ninth grader wearing the Medal Of Honor around his neck.
I became acquainted with Jack because he and I belong to the “Veterans of Underage Military Service” which is a group made up of men and women who were underage when they served America in the armed forces. If you’d like to know more about Jack Lucas, just type on his name and search internet. If you’d enjoy reading more about underage veterans, go to OLDVUMS on internet.
Bruce L Salisbury
©6 June 2008
