thedrifter
03-15-08, 07:15 AM
Marines give honor to 2 WWII heroes
Home News Tribune Online 03/15/08
By RICK MALWITZ
STAFF WRITER
rmalwitz@thnt.com
EDISON — They looked like young boys in the presence of their heroes.
In fact, they were.
Marines who served from the 1950s to the 1970s met Tuesday at Harold's New York Deli to honor two Marines awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II, Jack Lucas of Hattiesburg, Miss. and Art Jackson of Boise, Idaho.
"This is why Marines like me join the Marines," said Vince Garibaldi of Woodbridge, after listening to Lucas tell his remarkable story.
When Lucas said he earned his medal on Iwo Jima on the second day of the invasion, Garibaldi, who served from 1958 to 1961, and is a student of Marines' history, immediately said, "February 20, 1945."
"I look at these guys and swell up, as an American and as a Marine," said Jack McIntyre of Iselin, who joined the Marines in 1970 and served for 10 years.
Lucas and Jackson are two of 31 living World War II recipients of the medal, an honor established by President Lincoln during the Civil War to honor noncommissioned officers and privates who "distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action."
The two spent Monday in New York, where Jackson was given the task of ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
They came here Tuesday to be honored by the New Jersey Leathernecks, a Marines' motorcycle club.
"These are my brothers," said Tony DeSantis of Middletown, president of motorcycle club. "When they do something like they did, we don't let it go."
In his role as head of a Marines' organization, DeSantis has heard Lucas story several times. It's a story Lucas put in writing: "Indestructible: The unforgettable story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima."
Lucas joined the Marines at the age of 14, lying about his age and forging his mother's signature on his enlistment papers. He was 11 when his father died, and he spent the next three years at a military academy, allowing him to seem mature beyond his years at boot camp.
A year later he was stationed on Pearl Harbor, and it was learned he was 15. He was forced to stay at Pearl Harbor while his buddies sailed west to engage the Japanese in the Pacific.
Lucas would have none of that. He went AWOL. He sailed with his buddies as a stowaway, and when he was discovered his commander said he "wished he had a boatload" of guys as eager to fight as Lucas.
On the second day of battle at Iwo Jima, 10 days after his 17th birthday, Lucas and three other men were suddenly ambushed, and two grenades were tossed toward them. Lucas tossed one away and dove on the other, "absorbing the whole blasting forces," according to his medal citation.
Left for dead, he wiggled fingers on his left hand to let others know he was alive. To this day he has more than 200 shrapnel fragments throughout his body, including his brain and his lung.
He became the youngest Marine recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, presented the award by President Truman at the White House on Oct. 5, 1945.
Following hospital treatment he returned home to finish high school and, to fulfill a promise to his mother, he enrolled in Duke University.
Jackson earned his medal for his actions on the island of Peleliu on Sept. 18, 1944, a month shy of his 20th birthday.
According to his citation: "Determined to crush the entire pocket of resistance although harassed on all sides by the shattering blasts of Japanese weapons and covered only by small rifle parties, he stormed 1 gun position after another, dealing death and destruction to the savagely fighting enemy in his inexorable drive against the remaining defenses."
He was credited with killing a total of 85 enemy soldiers.
This week his trip to New York was a return trip of sorts. When the war was won he was assigned to guard the family of Admiral Chester Nimitz during the week the troops were honored with a ticker tape parade in Manhattan, allowing him to spend a week at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
The most severe wound Jackson suffered was when he was shot in the neck, a victim of friendly fire. He was given the .45 caliber bullet following surgery.
His father, a jeweler by trade, melted the bullet and from it made a watch fob.
The watch fob and the one of the nation's highest honors are his most meaningful souvenirs.
Ellie
Home News Tribune Online 03/15/08
By RICK MALWITZ
STAFF WRITER
rmalwitz@thnt.com
EDISON — They looked like young boys in the presence of their heroes.
In fact, they were.
Marines who served from the 1950s to the 1970s met Tuesday at Harold's New York Deli to honor two Marines awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in World War II, Jack Lucas of Hattiesburg, Miss. and Art Jackson of Boise, Idaho.
"This is why Marines like me join the Marines," said Vince Garibaldi of Woodbridge, after listening to Lucas tell his remarkable story.
When Lucas said he earned his medal on Iwo Jima on the second day of the invasion, Garibaldi, who served from 1958 to 1961, and is a student of Marines' history, immediately said, "February 20, 1945."
"I look at these guys and swell up, as an American and as a Marine," said Jack McIntyre of Iselin, who joined the Marines in 1970 and served for 10 years.
Lucas and Jackson are two of 31 living World War II recipients of the medal, an honor established by President Lincoln during the Civil War to honor noncommissioned officers and privates who "distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action."
The two spent Monday in New York, where Jackson was given the task of ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
They came here Tuesday to be honored by the New Jersey Leathernecks, a Marines' motorcycle club.
"These are my brothers," said Tony DeSantis of Middletown, president of motorcycle club. "When they do something like they did, we don't let it go."
In his role as head of a Marines' organization, DeSantis has heard Lucas story several times. It's a story Lucas put in writing: "Indestructible: The unforgettable story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima."
Lucas joined the Marines at the age of 14, lying about his age and forging his mother's signature on his enlistment papers. He was 11 when his father died, and he spent the next three years at a military academy, allowing him to seem mature beyond his years at boot camp.
A year later he was stationed on Pearl Harbor, and it was learned he was 15. He was forced to stay at Pearl Harbor while his buddies sailed west to engage the Japanese in the Pacific.
Lucas would have none of that. He went AWOL. He sailed with his buddies as a stowaway, and when he was discovered his commander said he "wished he had a boatload" of guys as eager to fight as Lucas.
On the second day of battle at Iwo Jima, 10 days after his 17th birthday, Lucas and three other men were suddenly ambushed, and two grenades were tossed toward them. Lucas tossed one away and dove on the other, "absorbing the whole blasting forces," according to his medal citation.
Left for dead, he wiggled fingers on his left hand to let others know he was alive. To this day he has more than 200 shrapnel fragments throughout his body, including his brain and his lung.
He became the youngest Marine recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, presented the award by President Truman at the White House on Oct. 5, 1945.
Following hospital treatment he returned home to finish high school and, to fulfill a promise to his mother, he enrolled in Duke University.
Jackson earned his medal for his actions on the island of Peleliu on Sept. 18, 1944, a month shy of his 20th birthday.
According to his citation: "Determined to crush the entire pocket of resistance although harassed on all sides by the shattering blasts of Japanese weapons and covered only by small rifle parties, he stormed 1 gun position after another, dealing death and destruction to the savagely fighting enemy in his inexorable drive against the remaining defenses."
He was credited with killing a total of 85 enemy soldiers.
This week his trip to New York was a return trip of sorts. When the war was won he was assigned to guard the family of Admiral Chester Nimitz during the week the troops were honored with a ticker tape parade in Manhattan, allowing him to spend a week at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
The most severe wound Jackson suffered was when he was shot in the neck, a victim of friendly fire. He was given the .45 caliber bullet following surgery.
His father, a jeweler by trade, melted the bullet and from it made a watch fob.
The watch fob and the one of the nation's highest honors are his most meaningful souvenirs.
Ellie