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The Tragic History of the U.S. Child Warriors

Khalid Elhassan June 9, 2020 34 min

26. The Teen Marine

Jack Lucas. Naval History and Heritage Command

Jacklyn Harrell “Jack” Lucas (1928 – 2008) was desperate to join the action during WWII. So when still a child, he lied about his age and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He went on to become the youngest Marine ever to receive a Medal of Honor – the country’s highest award for valor. Lucas earned it for heroic conduct at age seventeen, when he saved the lives of fellow Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Lucas was born in Plymouth, North Carolina. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he was a thirteen-year-old cadet captain in a military academy, and captain of the school’s football team. Eager to serve, Lucas forged his mother’s signature when he was fourteen, writing it on a form that granted permission for her “17-year-old” son to enlist. It got him into the Marine Corps Reserves.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.