Jacklyn H . Lucas Jacklyn Harold " Jack " Lucas ( 14 February 1928 – 5 June 2008 ) was a United States Army captain who was awarded the Medal of Honor at age seventeen for heroism above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Marine Corps private first class during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II . During a close firefight in two trenches between Lucas and three Marines with eleven Japanese soldiers , Lucas saved the lives of the three Marines from two enemy hand grenades that were thrown into and lying in their trench by unhesitatingly placing himself on one grenade , while in the next instant pulling the other grenade under him . The grenade he first jammed into the black ash and soft sand with his rifle and covered with his body , exploded , and wounded him only ; the other grenade did not explode . He is the youngest Marine and the youngest serviceman in World War II to be awarded the United States ' highest military decoration for valor . Early years . Lucas was born in Plymouth , North Carolina on 14 February 1928 . After his father , a tobacco farmer , died when he was ten , his mother sent him to nearby Edwards Military Institute in Salemburg . He rose to be a cadet captain , and was the captain of the football team . He was an all - around sportsman , also taking part in baseball , softball , basketball , boxing , wrestling , horseback riding , trap and skeet shooting , and hunting . U . S . Marine Corps Reserve . World War II . Lucas was only 14 years of age , having a muscular build , tall and weighing , when he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve at Norfolk , Virginia without his mother ' s consent on August 8 , 1942 . He gave his age as seventeen and forged his mother ' s name , and was sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island , South Carolina for recruit training . During his rifle qualification , he qualified as a sharpshooter . He was next assigned to the Marine Barracks at Naval Air Station Jacksonville , Florida . In June 1943 , he was transferred to the 21st Replacement Battalion at Marine Corps Air Station New River , North Carolina , and one month later he went to the 25th Replacement Battalion , and successfully completed schooling at Camp Lejeune , North Carolina which qualified him as a heavy machine gun crewman . He was next sent by train to San Diego with his unit . He left the continental United States on November 4 , 1943 , and the following month he joined the 6th Base Depot of the V Amphibious Corps at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii . On January 29 , 1944 , he was promoted to private first class . On January 10 , 1945 , according to statements he made to his buddies , Lucas walked out of camp to join a combat organization wearing a khaki uniform and carrying his dungarees and field shoes in a roll under his arm . He was declared UA ( Unauthorized Absence ) when he failed to return that night and a month later he was reduced to the rank of private . He stowed away on board the which was transporting the 1st Battalion , 26th Marine Regiment of the 5th Marine Division to Iwo Jima . On February 8 , the day before he would have been placed on the Marine Corps " deserter list " , he turned himself in to Marine Captain Robert Dunlap , Commanding Officer of C Company . He was taken by Captain Dunlap to the battalion ' s commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Pollock , and was assigned to Dunlap ' s rifle company as a rifleman . On February 14 , Lucas reached his seventeenth birthday while at sea five days before the invasion of Iwo Jima began . On February 19 , Lucas made the 5th Division ' s landing on Iwo Jima with C Company , 1st Battalion , 26th Marines . On February 20 , Lucas and three Marines who were members of a 4 - man fire team from one of C Company ' s platoons , were creeping through a twisting ravine towards or at an enemy airstrip when they spotted an enemy pillbox and got into a trench for cover . They then spotted eleven Japanese soldiers in a parallel trench ( they had a tunnel to there from the pill box ) and opened up on them with rifle fire . The Japanese also opened fire and threw two grenades inside the Marine ' s trench in front of them . Lucas spotted the grenades on the ground in front of his buddies and yelled " grenades " , he then jumped over a Marine and dove for the grenades jamming one of the grenades into the volcanic ash with his rifle and covering it with his body while reaching out and pulling the other grenade beneath him . The first of the two grenade he covered with his body exploded tossing Lucas on his back , severely wounding him in the right arm and wrist , right leg and thigh , and chest . He was still conscious and barely alive after the blast holding in his left hand the other grenade which did not explode . His three comrades were unharmed due to Lucas having shielded them from the blast . The Japanese soldiers in their trench were all killed and the three Marines continued on away from the trench leaving Lucas behind having thought he was dead . Lucas was found by Marines from another unit passing by who called for a navy corpsmen that attended to his wounds and protected him with a carbine from being shot and killed by another Japanese soldier in the trench . He was evacuated by stretcher - bearers to and from the beach , to an LST to a cargo ship used as a hospital ( all the hospital ships were full ) and then to the hospital ship . He was treated at various field hospitals prior to his arrival in San Francisco , California on March 28 , 1945 . He eventually underwent 21 surgeries . For the rest of his life , there remained about 200 pieces of metal , some the size of 22 caliber bullets , in Lucas ' body — which set off airport metal detectors . In August , the mark of desertion was removed from his reccord while he was a patient at the U . S . Naval Hospital at Charleston , South Carolina . On September 18 , he was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve because of disability resulting from his wounds following his reappointment to the rank of private first class . On 5 October 1945 , Lucas , three sailors , and ten other Marines including Robert Dunlap his former company commanding officer on Iwo Jima , were presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry S . Truman during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House . Those in attendance at the ceremony included Lucas ' s mother and brother , Admiral Chester Nimitz , Secretary of Defense James Forrestal . Later life . Lucas earned a business degree from High Point University and was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity ( Delta Omega Chapter ) . He joined the U . S . Army in 1961 and served in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper to conquer his fear of heights , and survived a training jump in which both of his parachute s did not open . He volunteered for Vietnam , but was not allowed to go there and ended his time as a captain in the army in 1965 at Ft . Bragg , North Carolina , training troops for the Vietnam War . When the keel of the ( christened in 2000 ) was laid , Lucas placed his Medal of Honor citation in the ship ' s hull , where it remains sealed . On 3 August 2006 , Lucas , along with fifteen living Marine Medal of Honor recipients , was presented the Medal of Honor flag by Commandant of the Marine Corps General Michael Hagee . The presentation took place at the Marine Barracks in Washington , D . C . in front of over 1 , 000 people , including family , friends , and Marines . Lucas said of the ceremony , " To have these young men here in our presence — it just rejuvenates this old heart of mine . I love the Corps even more knowing that my country is defended by such fine young people . " Lucas died at a hospital in Hattiesburg , Mississippi on June 5 , 2008 of leukemia with family and friends by his side . Military awards . Lucas ' s military decorations and awards include : Medal of Honor citation . Lucas ' s Medal of Citation reads : The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JACKLYN H . LUCAS UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE for service as set forth in the following CITATION :