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US Navy - Guided Missile Destroyer DDG 125 - USS Jack H. Lucas |
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| 07/24 | ||
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Type,
class: Guided Missile Destroyer - DDG; Arleigh Burke
class, Flight III Builder: Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding (HII), Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA STATUS: Awarded: June 3, 2013 Laid down: November 8, 2019 Launched: June 5, 2021 Christened: March 26, 2022 Commissioned: October 7, 2023 IN SERVICE Homeport: Naval Base San Diego, California Namesake: Jacklyn H. Lucas (1928-2008) Ships Motto: INDESTRUCTIBLE Technical Data: see: INFO > Arleigh Burke class Guided Missile Destroyer - DDG |
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 off Hawaii - March 2024  departing Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii - March 2024  arriving at her new homeport, Naval Base San Diego, California - October 25, 2023  arriving at her new homeport, Naval Base San Diego, California - October 25, 2023  commissioning ceremony - Tampa, Florida - October 7, 2023  commissioning ceremony - Tampa, Florida - October 7, 2023  commissioning practice - Tampa, Florida - October 4, 2023  departing Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi - September 26, 2023  departing Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi - September 26, 2023  departing Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi - September 26, 2023  departing Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi - September 26, 2023  departing Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi - September 26, 2023  acceptance trials - May 2023  acceptance trials - May 2023  acceptance trials - May 2023  acceptance trials - May 2023  acceptance trials - May 2023  trials - December 2022  christening ceremony - March 2022  January 2022  moored at Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding (HII), Pascagoula, Mississippi - June 2021  launching at Pascagoula, Mississippi - June 5, 2021    |
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USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125): The ship’s seal tells the remarkable story of Jacklyn Harold "Jack H" Lucas. Encased in the traditional colors of the United States Marine Corps, gold and scarlet, the background illustrates the battle of Iwo Jima via Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. On 20 February, 1945, a 17 year old Private First Class Jack H Lucas, serving in the 5th Marine Division (depicted as a PFC Devil Dog on the left-hand side), selflessly dove onto a grenade and simultaneously pulled another under his body, saving three of his fellow Marines. Although severely wounded, he survived, recovered, and was the youngest Marine ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor. In 1961, wanting to continue to serve his country, he joined the United States Army, proudly serving to the rank of Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division (represented as a paratrooper on the right-hand side), where he survived a double parachute failure during training maneuvers. On the ocean’s horizon is a silhouette of the USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7), where Jack H Lucas’ Medal of Honor citation lies within the ship’s hull. Seen in the foreground is the Medal of Honor, with the first in class Flight III Arleigh Burke Destroyer, USS JACK H LUCAS - DDG 125, front-and-center launching two advanced Standard Missiles. Representing his faithful service which started at the age of 14, the 5th Marine Division Insignia is located on the lower left while the 82nd Airborne Insignia is located on the lower right of the Medal of Honor. The Devil Dog, Paratrooper, and USS JACK H LUCAS – DDG 125, share the traditional Navy haze gray color, tying them all together in order to encapsulate Lucas’ remarkable story. The ship’s motto, boldly displayed in riveted steel representing the strength of the ship, her crew, and the workers who built her, fittingly describes the spirit of Jack H Lucas - INDESTRUCTIBLE. (USN) |
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Jacklyn Harold "Jack" Lucas (February 14, 1928 - June 5,
2008): ... was a United States Marine who later reenlisted in the United States Army and reached the Rank of Captain. He was awarded the Medal of Honor at age seventeen for heroism above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Private First Class in the Marine Corps during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. During a close firefight in two trenches between Lucas and three Marines with eleven Japanese soldiers, Lucas saved the lives of the three Marines from two enemy hand grenades that were thrown into and lying in their trench by unhesitatingly placing himself on one grenade, while in the next instant pulling the other grenade under him. The grenade he covered with his body exploded, and wounded him only; the other grenade did not explode. He is the youngest Marine and the youngest serviceman in World War II to be awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor. Early years Lucas was born in Plymouth, North Carolina on February 14, 1928. After his father, a tobacco farmer, died when he was ten, his mother sent him to nearby Edwards Military Institute in Salemburg. He rose to be a cadet captain, and was the captain of the football team. He was an all-around sportsman, also taking part in baseball, softball, basketball, boxing, wrestling, horseback riding, trap and skeet shooting, and hunting. U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Lucas was only 14 years of age, having a muscular build, 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall and weighing 180 pounds (82 kg), when he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve at Norfolk, Virginia without his mother's consent on August 8, 1942. He gave his age as seventeen and forged his mother's name, and was sent to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina for recruit training. During his rifle qualification, he qualified as a sharpshooter. He was next assigned to the Marine Barracks at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. In June 1943, he was transferred to the 21st Replacement Battalion at Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, and one month later he went to the 25th Replacement Battalion, and successfully completed schooling at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina which qualified him as a heavy machine gun crewman. He was next sent by train to San Diego with his unit. He left the continental United States on November 4, 1943, and the following month he joined the 6th Base Depot of the V Amphibious Corps at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On January 29, 1944, he was promoted to private first class. On January 10, 1945, according to statements he made to his comrades, Lucas walked out of camp to join a combat organization wearing a khaki uniform and carrying his dungarees and field shoes in a roll under his arm. He was declared UA (Unauthorized Absence) when he failed to return that night and a month later he was reduced to the rank of private. He stowed away on board the USS Deuel which was transporting the 1st Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment of the 5th Marine Division to Iwo Jima. On February 8, the day before he would have been placed on the Marine Corps "deserter list", he turned himself in to Marine Captain Robert Dunlap, Commanding Officer of C Company. He was taken by Captain Dunlap to the battalion's commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Pollock, and was assigned to Dunlap's rifle company as a rifleman. On February 14, Lucas reached his seventeenth birthday while at sea five days before the invasion of Iwo Jima began. On February 19, Lucas made the 5th Division's landing on Iwo Jima with C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. On February 20, Lucas and three Marines who were members of a 4-man fire team from one of C Company's platoons were creeping through a twisting ravine towards or at an enemy airstrip when they spotted an enemy pillbox and got into a trench for cover. They then spotted eleven Japanese soldiers in a parallel trench (they had a tunnel to there from the pill box) and opened up on them with rifle fire. The Japanese also opened fire and threw two grenades inside the Marine's trench in front of them. Lucas spotted the grenades on the ground in front of his comrades and yelled "grenades", he then jumped over a Marine and dove for them, jamming one of them into the volcanic ash and soft sand with his rifle and covering it with his body while reaching out and pulling the other one beneath him. The first of the two grenades exploded, tossing Lucas on his back, severely wounding him in the right arm and wrist, right leg and thigh, and chest. He was still conscious and barely alive after the blast, holding in his left hand the other grenade, which did not explode. His three comrades were unharmed due to Lucas' actions, and the Japanese soldiers in their trench were all killed and the three Marines continued on away from the trench, leaving Lucas behind, having thought he was dead. Lucas was found by Marines from another unit passing by who called for a navy corpsmen that attended to his wounds and protected him with a carbine from being shot and killed by another Japanese soldier in the trench. He was evacuated by stretcher-bearers to and from the beach, to an LST to a cargo ship used as a hospital (all the hospital ships were full) and then to the hospital ship Samaritan. He was treated at various field hospitals prior to his arrival in San Francisco, California on March 28, 1945. He eventually underwent 21 surgeries. For the rest of his life, there remained about 200 pieces of metal, some the size of 22 caliber bullets, in Lucas' body - which set off airport metal detectors. In August, the mark of desertion was removed from his record while he was a patient at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Charleston, South Carolina. On September 18, he was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve because of disability resulting from his wounds following his reappointment to the rank of private first class. On 5 October 1945, Lucas, three sailors, and ten other Marines including Robert Dunlap his former company commanding officer on Iwo Jima, were presented the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. Those in attendance at the ceremony included Lucas's mother and brother, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. Later life Lucas earned a business degree from High Point University and was initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (Delta Omega Chapter). He joined the U.S. Army in 1961 and served in the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper to conquer his fear of heights, and survived a training jump in which neither of his two parachutes opened. He volunteered for Vietnam, but was not allowed to go there and ended his time as a captain in the army in 1965 at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, training troops for the Vietnam War. When the keel of the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) (christened in 2000) was laid, Lucas placed his Medal of Honor citation in the ship's hull, where it remains sealed. On 3 August 2006, Lucas, along with fifteen living Marine Medal of Honor recipients, was presented the Medal of Honor flag by Commandant of the Marine Corps General Michael Hagee. The presentation took place at the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. in front of over 1,000 people, including family, friends, and Marines. Lucas said of the ceremony, "To have these young men here in our presence - it just rejuvenates this old heart of mine. I love the Corps even more knowing that my country is defended by such fine young people." Lucas died at a hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on June 5, 2008 of leukemia with family and friends by his side. source: wikipedia - - - - - another biography: Private First Class Jacklyn Harrell Lucas earned the Medal of Honor during the Iwo Jima campaign for unhesitatingly hurling himself over his comrades upon one grenade and for pulling another one under himself, absorbing the whole blasting force of the explosions with his own body. Private First Class Lucas, the youngest Marine ever to receive the nation's highest military decoration, was presented the award by President Harry S. Truman at the White House on Friday, 5 October 1945. Jacklyn Harrell Lucas was born in Plymouth, North Carolina, 14 February 1928. He attended high school at nearby Salemburg and was captain of the football team. He was an all-around sportsman, also taking part in baseball, softball, basketball, boxing, wrestling, horseback riding, trap and skeet shooting, and hunting. Although only 14 years of age, five feet, five and one half inches high, weighing 158 pounds, he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve with his mother's consent on 6 August 1942. He gave his age as 17, and went to Parris Island, South Carolina, for recruit training. During his rifle training Pvt Lucas qualified as a sharpshooter. He was next assigned to the Marine Barracks, U.S. Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida. In June 1943 he was transferred to the 21st Replacement Battalion at New River, North Carolina, and one month later he went to the 25th Replacement Battalion, where he successfully completed schooling which qualified him as a heavy machine gun crewman. He left the United States on 4 November 1943, and the following month he joined the 6th Base Depot of the V Amphibious Corps at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was advanced to private first class on 29 January 1944. With statements to his buddies that he was going to join a combat organization, PFC Lucas walked out of camp on 10 January 1945, wearing a khaki uniform and carrying his dungarees and field shoes in a roll under his arm. He was declared absent without leave (AWOL) when he failed to return that night and a month later, when there was still no sign of him, he was declared a "deserter," and a reward offered for his apprehension. He was also reduced to the rank of private at that time. He stowed away on board the USS Deuel which was transporting units of the 5th Marine Division into combat. He surrendered to the senior troop officer present on 8 February dressed in neat, clean dungarees. He was allowed to remain, and shortly after he was transferred to Headquarters Company, 5th Marine Division. He reached his 17th birthday while at sea, six days before he earned the Medal of Honor. On the day following the landing at Iwo Jima, he was creeping through a twisting ravine with three other men of his rifle team when the Japanese opened a hand grenade attack on them. The men jumped into two shallow foxholes. A grenade landed in Pvt Lucas' foxhole and he threw his body over it. Another one came hurtling in, and he reached out and pulled it beneath himself shortly before the explosion occurred, which lifted him off the ground and blew parts of his clothing into the air. He was left for dead by his companions, although he was miraculously still alive. Severely wounded in the right arm and wrist, right leg and thigh, and chest, Pvt Lucas had undoubtedly saved his companions from serious injury and possible death. He was evacuated and treated at various field hospitals prior to his arrival at San Francisco, California, 28 March 1945. The mark of desertion was removed from his record in August of that year while he was a patient at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Charleston, South Carolina. He was discharged from the Marine Corps Reserve because of disability resulting from his wounds on 18 September 1945, following his reappointment to the rank of private first class. Mr. Lucas passed away on 5 June 2008 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer. He was buried at Highland Cemetery in Hattiesburg four days later. In addition to the Medal of Honor, PFC Lucas was awarded the Purple Heart; Presidential Unit Citation; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star; American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. source: USMC Medal of Honor citation Lucas's Medal of Citation reads: The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to PRIVATE FIRST CLASS JACKLYN H. LUCAS - UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE for service as set forth in the following CITATION: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the First Battalion, Twenty-sixth Marines, Fifth Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands 20 February 1945. While creeping through a treacherous, twisting ravine which ran in close proximity to a fluid and uncertain front line on D-plus+1 Day, Private First Class Lucas and three other men were suddenly ambushed by a hostile patrol which savagely attacked with rifle fire and grenades. Quick to act when the lives of the small group were endangered by two grenades which landed directly in front of them, Private First Class Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon one grenade and pulled the other one under him, absorbing the whole blasting force of the explosions in his own body in order to shield his companions from the concussion and murderous flying fragments. By his inspiring action and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice, he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death, but also enabled them to rout the Japanese patrol and continue the advance. His exceptionally courageous initiative and loyalty reflect the highest credit upon Private First Class Lucas and the United States Naval Service. /S/ Harry S. Truman
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