Jack Lucas' departure was pure bulldog, jarhead toughness.
The nation's youngest Medal of Honor Recipient since the Civil War died an hour and a half into yesterday morning and in complete command of the situation.
Ruby's (Jack's wife) sister called us to say he was in grave condition and later to confirm his passing.
Associated Press reports:
"Cancer was the one enemy Lucas couldn't defeat and the disease "tore apart his body," Ruby Lucas said. He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in April and spent his last days in the hospital with family and friends standing vigil.
"In his final hours, the steady stream of visitors was stopped and Ruby Lucas was given a few quiet moments with her husband.
" 'I said, 'Jack, you know your're dying,' Ruby Lucas said. He just raised his head off the pillow. He said, 'I ain't dead yet.' Just as plain as day. I said, 'That's Jack Lucas. He wants to get the last word in.' "
For those who knew him, this was exactly as he would have scripted it.
Jack was one of the few people I've known who lived his life exactly as he wanted... and the Devil take the hindmost.
The state flag will fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Monday, the day Lucas will be buried.
His death brings to 104 the number of living Medal of Honor Recipients.
Services
Date of Visitation: Sunday, June 8, 2008, 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. at Moore Funeral Home in Hattiesburg.
Funeral services will be held 10:30 a.m. Monday, June 9, 2008 on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Interment will follow in Highland Cemetery. Jack was preceded in death by his parents, Louis Harold and Margaret Lucas.
Survivors include his wife, Ruby C. Clark Lucas of Hattiesburg; four sons, William Wayne Lucas of Adel, Georgia, Jimmy Randall Lucas of Lewisville, North Carolina, Louis Harold Lucas, II of Safford, Virginia, and Kelly Swain Lucas of Petal; a daughter, Charlene Lucas of Petal; three step-daughters, Joan Martin, Debbie Mitchell and Melinda Carroll, all of Petal; a brother, Louis Edwards Lucas of Greenville, North Carolina; 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren
Instead of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Marine Corps League, Commiskey-Wheat Detachment 1073, P.O. Box 18290, Hattiesburg, MS, 39404
God Speed, Jack.
Semper Fi.
Jack's autobiography is full of amazing, interesting and unlikely stories. As I recall... His step-father helped falsify his enlistment papers (Jack was only 15, but very big). His marksmanship was so good that after inital training he was assigned to teach it, but instead he defied his orders and got on a troop train headed West where he was assigned to a unit headed for the islands. While in Hawaii, it came out that Jack was still only 16 and consequently he was waiting for orders to be shipped home when his cousin, another Marine, arrived on the Iwo Jima invasion fleet. No one knew where the fleet were going, but they all knew it was to the action, so Jack talked his cousin into stowing him away. At sea, the cousin's CO discovered Jack, but simply assigned him as rifleman. (Coincidentally, that officer himself survived the battle with a Medal of Honor). It was an unlikely string of events that led to Jack's ever being there to cover that grenade (and - oh, yeah - there were actually two grenades).
Semper Fi, Jack
Posted by: NightWalker | June 07, 2008 at 12:41 PM