When Two Grenades Landed In A WWII Trench, This Teen Risked His Life In An Act OF Extreme Heroism

Do you know what presence of mind means? Ask Private Jack Lucas about it and he would tell you what it is and how it saved him and his comrades’ lives. On February 20, 1945, four marines, including Private Jack Lucas were taking on the Japanese soldiers on the Iwo Jima Island. During this fight, two grenades hurled down at their trench and if Jack didn’t show his presence of mind and reacted swiftly, then he wouldn’t have been alive to narrate the story. When the Japanese bombed the Pearl Harbor and initiated America’s participation into WWII, Lucas was only 13 years old. Nevertheless, his age has nothing to do with his ability as he was already a cadet captain at military school. Jacklyn Harrell Lucas was born in North Carolina in 1928 and when he was 10 years old, his father died. This made a huge impact on him and he started making wrong choices in life when his mother admitted him to the Edwards Military Academy. The discipline of Military Academy shaped him up and then when the war began, he desperately wanted to join the Marine Corps Reserve at Norfolk. Nevertheless, he was underage, so he forged his mother’s signature and posed himself as 17 years old. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 180pounds at the age of 14, so it wasn’t tough for him to make others believe that he was 17. In July 1943, he trained himself hard and completed his training as heavy machine gun crewman. He was posted at the V Amphibious Corp, but he was determined to take on the Japanese soldier, so he walked out of his troop and joined the troop that was heading for the combat. He wasn’t a deserter, because he then surrendered to Captain Robert Dunlap. His urge to fight against the Japanese was put to use by Colonel Pollock who replaced a marine who was down with appendicitis. Though the shelling was hard and the bullets were killing soldiers all around, still, he was determined to take down as many Japanese as he could. The day after they landed, Lucas and three others were patrolling when they took over one empty trench, but soon they realized that there were 11 Japanese soldiers in a nearby trench. During the combat, when he saw two grenades in his trench, immediately he jumped on it saving the lives of his comrades, but badly injuring himself. He then went on to have 21 surgeries and once he was completely fit, in 1945, he received the Medal of Honor.