24. The Youngest Marine Medal of Honor Recipient
Jack Lucas was lucky to survive, but was left with over 250 shrapnel bits in his body. It took 26 operations spread out over several months to repair the damage. In October of 1945, President Truman personally placed the Medal of Honor around Lucas’ neck during a ceremony on the White House lawn, before the teenager was discharged from the Corps.
Lucas went on to get a business degree, and in 1961, enlisted in the US Army. He joined the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper, and survived a training jump in which both parachutes failed to open. He was commissioned, reached the rank of captain, and was assigned to train paratroopers in Fort Bragg. He volunteered to serve in Vietnam, but after his request was denied, he resigned his commission in 1965. He died of Leukemia in 2008, and in 2016, the USS Jack H. Lucas, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was named in his honor.
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