Indestructible - by Jack H Lucas & D K Drum (Paperback)

About the Book

A candid combat memoir recalls the battlefield exploits of a seventeen-year-old Marine Corps private, whose selfless actions at the height of the Battle of Iwo Jima not only saved his companions, but also led to him becoming the youngest Marine in history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Book Synopsis

Medal of Honor recipient Jack H. Lucas's classic memoir of his heroics at the Battle of Iwo Jima--with a foreword by Bob Dole and reissued to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of the battle in 2020.

On February 20, 1945, the second day of the assault on Iwo Jima--one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater in World War II--Private Jack Lucas, who was only seventeen, and three other Marines engaged in a close-proximity firefight with Japanese soldiers. When two enemy grenades landed in their trench, Lucas jumped on one and pulled the other under his body to save the lives of his comrades. Lucas was blown into the air as his body was torn apart by 250 entrance wounds. He was so severely wounded that his team left him for dead. Miraculously, he survived.

While on the hospital ship Samaritan, his spirit soared to see the American flag flying atop Mount Suribachi--the same flag immortalized in Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. Lucas endured twenty-one grueling surgeries and carried 200 pieces of shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life. Awarded the Medal of Honor, he became the youngest Marine in U.S. history--and the youngest of all World War II servicemen--to receive the honor.

Indestructible tells the remarkable story of an extraordinary American possessed with a fierce determination to serve his country.

Review Quotes

"Jack Lucas exemplified with his own blood and grit the spirit of sacrifice that won the war in the Pacific. All Americans should know his story; our foes should contemplate it." -- Bob Dole

"Jack Lucas's story is beyond compare. ... Spendidly written." -- Leatherneck (The Magazine of the Marines)

"One of the most remarkable true stories one is ever likely to read." -- WWII History

"Worth reading ... The story of his recovery from his wounds and postwar life, including celebrity tours with his Medal of Honor, are told with painstaking detail, and are as fascinating as his heroic actions on Iwo Jima." -- Wall Street Journal