Indestructible By Jack Lucas (209 pages, 43 photos) Reviewer:  Capt. Robert N. Adrian, USN (Ret.) Overall Rating: Three Stars: Recommended. A Solid Effort IWO JIMA was the most heavily fortified island the United States assaulted during World War II and INDESTRUCTIBLE is the story of Jack Lucas and his making into a U.S. Marine Pfc Warrior who, at five days before reaching the age of 17, participated in this Historic Event; and through his heroic actions became the youngest serviceman in the twentieth century and the youngest Marine in history to receive the Medal of Honor. UNBELIEVABLE? It wasn't done in a U.S. Marine Corp's conventional way but in THE JACK LUCAS WAY. Jack was 12 years old when Pearl Harbor occurred and it instilled in him an abiding desire to become a Marine Warrior to fight the Japanese. At the age of 14 he convinced his mother to lie about his age on her Consent Form and was then enlisted into the U.S. Marine Corps. His story then follows his training where he finishes at Camp Catlin in Hawaii and it's there he nearly meets his downfall. With his division preparing for the November 20, 1943 assault on TARAWA, a letter he sent home, which passed through the censors, revealed that his goal of facing the Japanese enemy would be met before he reached the age of 15. The censor dutifully passed this information on to Jack's Company Commander and accordingly Jack was withdrawn from his Company and Court Martialed for a misrepresentation of his age, but "fast talked" higher authorities from dismissing him from the service and served his brig time and additional training out of Camp Catlin most of his 15th and 16th year. His desire for action overcame "The rules of the road", and he went AWOL from his assigned unit and stowed away on a Troop Transport headed for Iwo Jima. Being discovered as a stowaway, Jack again "fast talks" his way into being properly outfitted and accepted into the 5th Marine Division for the Iwo Jima landing and was among the 40,000 Marines who stormed Red Beach on D-Day of February 19, 1945. On D + 1 Day Jack was in a trench with three others of his fire fight team and caught sight of two Japanese grenades that had been thrown into their trench and yelling "grenades", he fell over the two, grinding one into the deep ashes of the terrain and apparently defusing it, but the second exploded, doing major damage to his body, mainly the right arm. The three others of his team left him for dead and he was later found and evacuated from the battlefield by hospital corpsmen. He follows with his tale of a long rehabilitation and receiving the Medal of Honor from President Truman on December 18, 1945; and then some of his times of ups and downs but not outs with one incident of a threatening plot against his life. EPILOGUE There were 353 Medal of Honor awards to American servicemen during WWII. Pfc Jack H. Lucas was the youngest with an amazing number of 84 by Marines and an astonishing 27 (half posthumous) Marines for that one month of action on Iwo, a record never surpassed in any battle in U.S. History and stands as America's most heroic battle.