My father died when I was 11 years old, and I...
--became kind of a tough kid after that to handle.
My mother couldn't handle me. She sent me off to military school.
I was there until the war broke out, December, 1941.
I was kind of devastated when we got the news
that all those people had suffered there at Pearl Harbor.
That very day a cold chill ran down my spine.
I just...
I just became obsessed that I had to do something.
Although I was not supposed to have been sent in any younger than 17.
I finally took matters in my own hands,
and forged my mother's consent papers
after I completed the eighth grade, and I had turned 14 by that time.
They gave me orders along with nine others
to stay at the base to relieve older cadres
and they'd send them out.
And that wasn't my cup of tea.
So when all these troops that had completed this training
boarded the train to go to California,
I packed my sea bag and got on the back end of that train
and went to California.
There are many people who fought in the service
under 17 years old, that entered the service young like I did.
They had that good, old American spirit.
They wanted to stand up for America.
NARRATOR: Despite the military's best efforts
to keep its youngest soldiers from harm,
Private First Class Jacklyn Lucas was so determined to fight
that he broke ranks twice to get into the heat of combat.
Stowing away on a transport bound for the raging war in the Pacific,
the 17-year-old's valiant action in the battle for the island of Iwo Jima
would make him the youngest Recipient of the Medal of Honor
since the Civil War.
I didn't even know where the ships were headed.
I had never heard of Iwo Jima in my lifetime.
I knew I was on the way to war
--and that's what I wanted. That was my obsession.
Thank goodness I didn't have to go in the first wave.
Because when we went in it was all hell had broken loose about artillery,
just tearing people up.
And it was just continuation, night and day, for the rest of that battle.
We lost 5,320 men
in the first two days of that battle.
It was up by the first airfield
where my action took place the second day.
We had knocked out this pillbox,
and this four-man fire team that I was attached to,
we ran down into one of these trenches
to take cover from all this direct fire that was coming our way.
And when we did,
the group leader that I was with, he jumps over in the other trench
and immediately jumps back
because he had jumped on the back of some Jap.
And he stood up, he came back into our trench, quick.
Well all hell broke loose then. We opened fire on the Japanese.
I opened fire. I shot two.
The second shot-- my rifle, of all things
--my rifle jammed.
When I reached down to un-jam my rifle
I saw two grenades.
How long had they been down there?
I didn't know.
Two seconds?
If my rifle had not jammed
it would have probably wounded all of us,
not killed us but wounded us.
And then those Japs we were supposed to be killing in front of us
would have finished us off.
So I hollered, "Grenades--!"
--and dove for the grenades to cover them with my body.
Only one went off, so one tore me up pretty bad.
Finally another outfit moving up saw me
and I kept moving the fingers on my left hand
to indicate, to let somebody know I was still alive.
And then they came in and got me
and they started running with me to take me back away from the immediate action.
I was finally discharged about the first part of September.
Of course I had to go home and see my galfriend and get some lip sugar.
But Mr. Truman called me and interrupted my plans there.
NEWSREEL: President Truman decorates a group of 14 Marine and Navy men
for heroism above and beyond the call of duty.
Seventeen year old Private Lucas, who enlisted at 14,
threw himself on an exploding grenade to save his fellow men.
I walked up there and saluted, and the President said,
"I'd rather have his medal than be President of the United States."
And I said, "Sir, I'll swap you."
And he just laughed.
Then a couple days later he takes us to New York,
and we had a parade down Fifth Avenue.
I was getting so much attention from the girls.
And these women would run out
and try to kiss me.
New York women just treated me so nice,
and I had a ball for the next couple days there.
I really enjoyed that.
I wasn't even cognizant about medals when I was in the military.
I never thought about them.
That wasn't my thing to go to war for some medal.
It was to fight for my country.
I don't feel like I'm some big hero, or anything like that.
The real heroes are the ones who had to give their all, their life.
They are the truest heroes in my book.