As we have spent years under the American Flag being raised on Iwo Jima, it's appropriate that this story was published today reminding us of the heroism of the youngest recipient of the Medal of Honor.

"Well, all hell broke loose and we opened fire on the Japanese. I opened fire, I shot two. The second shot, my rifle, of all things, my rifle jammed," Lucas said. "When I reached down to unjam my rifle, I saw two grenades. How long had it been down there? I didn't know. Two seconds?"

"If my rifle hand not jammed it would have probably wounded all of us, not killed us, but wounded us," he continued. "Then those Japs we were supposed to be killing in front of us would have finished us off."

Lucas dropped onto one of the grenades and pulled the second one underneath him. Only one went off, severely wounding him in the right arm, wrist, leg, thigh, and chest. The soft sand on Iwo Jima may have helped save his life by absorbing much of the explosion.

However, his fellow Marines, who were left unscathed, believed he was dead and moved on. Another unit subsequently noticed that Lucas was still alive and attended to his wounds before getting him back to more serious medical care at the beachhead. He was eventually transferred to the hospital ship USS Samaritan and made his way through various field hospitals before eventually returning to San Francisco. Doctors performed a total of 21 surgeries on Lucas and left more than 200 pieces of shrapnel inside of him, some large enough to set off airport metal detectors during his travels later in life.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/37581/the-youngest-world-war-ii-medal-of-honor-recipient-threw-himself-on-two-grenades-and-lived