Customer Reviews

Indestructible: The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima

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I am shocked to read a few of these reviews on Jacks book... Jack was like a grandfather to me and i am so blessed to of had him in my life!! With that said of course I will be biased with the praise for his book!! Jack was truly a larger then life character.. for those of us who had the privilege of knowing Jack personally, we see that his book is true to him. Maybe he did some times across as arrogant, but in my opinion he earned that right! Jack is a true American Hero and I feel that his story should be told to anyone who will hear it. For the person who posed the question as to Jacks involvement in the book, He did. Jack spent a lot of time with Doria (D.K. Drum) either at her home or at his home in Hattiesburg. He was sharp as a whip till the end. Jack always had a twinkle in his eye (which usually meant he was up to something) and that is something that did not fade in his last days.

Jack's story is one to be read by all, He is TRUE American hero.. not the actors and other celebrities out there!!

Despite what some other reviewers had to say, it should be noted at the outset that Jack Lucas didn't finish high school, and obviously didn't go to Columbia for a writing degree. He simply lied his way into enlisting in the Marine Corps at the age of 14, and ultimately conned his way into frontline units until he finally reached combat at Iwo Jima. Having wanted to be a Marine and fighting since he was 11, his dedicated pursuit of his goal seems impossible to believe, but it did happen, and this is his story.

Having met Jack, he is exactly like what the story sounds like. He is proud, patriotic, and unabashed in his belief that his actions that day were less significant than those who never returned. I found the story of his life after the war to be interesting, especially what his own wife would attempt later.

This is not going to tell the story of the whole war, and isn't a literary work that rivals Shakespeare, but it is one man's story, and well worth the time to read it.

D K Drum tells the story of a brave boy whom war changed into a man. Jack was a big boy for his age, and after the death of his father he saw fit to join the services even though he had to cheat and lie about his age to get in. He was thirteen, well built, an eighth grader at Edwards Academy the day Japenese planes made mincemeat of Pearl Harbor. He just knew he had to join up, and a despised stepfather, Radford Jones, agreed, it seems just to get him out of his life, signing the papers that said little Jack was fully seventeen. By August 1942 he was in, just as the First Marine landed at Guadalcanal. In his barracks he was waking up to the drill sergeant screaming, "Drop your cot [sic] and grab your socks. Give your heart to Jesus, boys, cause your butt belongs to me." Marine Corps training at Parris Island was no picnic--once a sergeant slammed a helmet down so hard on his scalp that his eyes bled down his nose. "I blocked out the pain," he writes, "and never let it bother me." Then on to Florida where, at fourteen, Jack found himself popular with the girls (adult girls of 18 and 19) due to his skill at swing dancing. Before long, on an intoxicating evening in Florida, crystal clear skies, he was showing a pretty waitress more than his boxers.

His buddies called him "Block of Granite." In Hawaii he tackled a pretty boy Marine who was posing as some sort of public relations export, but dared to call Jack a runt. After Jack demolished the offender, the corps threw Jack into the brig where he tangled with a tough Texan sergeant and had to poung rocks twelve hours a day. "Sergeant Ape," as Jack refers to him today, ordered him to hold his arms in front "Indian style" while he pounded Jack's stomach with his fists, whap, whap, whap. But Jack bided his time and waited until release whereupon he returned to the brig and told the cowardly sergeant he was there to beat his ass.

Five days later he was back in the same brig but Sergeant Ape kept his distance. By this time you're wondering, yeah, Jack's a tough teen but how is he going to make the transition to patriotic war hero? I don't want to spoil any surprises for you but suffice it to say he became the hero of Iwo Jima, second only to the great Audie Murphy in terms of heroism. Our boy became the youngest Marine ever to receive the coveted Congressional Medal of Honor, and by some great stroke of luck he is still with us today, to inspire us all, to overcome our early family problems with a good dose of thinking about others.

I am a retired Marine and I generally read several books on the Marine Corps each year; I had never heard of Jack Lucas before this book. But, I came to believe that his discplinary issues, has resulted in the Marines excluding him from the general USMC history, we teach our young Marines at recruit trainng or OCS.

I am glad I bought the non-abridged audiobook edition (part of daily commute). Its audio quality was pretty good. It is a good recounting of history, but someone should have listed to it before it was finalized on CD. There were repeations of several sentences which made we wonder if my CD player was on the blink. In addition, references to "126" should have redone they should have been redone as "1st Bn, 26 Marine Regiment". Better for non-Marine listeners.

According to Indestructible: The Unforgettable Story of a Marine Hero at the Battle of Iwo Jima, Jack Lucas was 13 years old on December 7, 1941, when he decided to go to war against Japan. He wanted to "make the Japanese pay for the attack on Pearl Harbor." The United States was soon at war with Nazi Germany, but since it had not attacked America, it was the Japanese Jack picked to fight.

Jack's mother was aware of his resolve to join the Marines but she would not lie and sign admission papers. After he forged her signature, he hugged her goodbye and headed for the recruiting office. Jack would admit there was no real love or respect between him and his stepfather, who assured the recruiting office that Jack was really 17. Jack was accepted as a Marine warrior.

At the top of his class in 1943, Jack easily qualified for heavy machine gun operation. But his next assignment disappointed him. Along with nine others, he was to remain in camp to take the place of senior instructors who were shipping out. This wouldn't work for Jack. He had joined the Marines "to kill the enemy myself ... I was hell bent to go to war." Ignoring his orders, he went AWOL and jumped the train for California. There, his missing name was added to the roster after he convinced a sergeant a mistake had been made.

Indestructible tells of a cocky bunch of Marines who singled Jack out because of his height, and verbally abused him. When a man dared touch Jack's hat, Jack exploded with a right to the man's jaw that knocked him unconscious. Punching out a fellow Marine was dishonorable in Jack's eyes because Marines became his family. Yet he was "never one to accept abuse."

Arriving at Oahu, Hawaii, Jack felt he was finally getting closer to deal with the Japanese, "one body count at a time." He was as feisty as ever. Too much so. He was locked up 17 times for fights while on liberty. He was thrown into the brig for punching out a Marine and messing up his tent quarters. That Marine called him a runt and refused to give him a light. For this incident, Jack was locked up for 45 days where he pounded rocks 12 hours a day, while awaiting court martial.

When released, Jack would wait no longer. He became a stowaway on the USS Deuel heading for the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. On the 29th day at sea, he turned himself in. Although he was an administrative nightmare, eventually he was reclassified as fit for action and assigned to an outfit. At last, he felt he was a real part of the Pacific war operation, "ready to explode at the first opportunity to draw blood." Jack was now 17 and Indestructible.

Artillery shelling followed by heavy aerial bombardment softened up the tunneled out Mount Suribachi. Jack scrambled from a Higgens boat into deep water and struggled toward bloody Red Beach shore. Lifeless and wounded Marines lay everywhere, along with scattered body parts. Ruined machinery blocked the way. Yet Jack and his outfit struggled forward through the powder-like sand of Iwo Jima.

As a team of four they approached a bunker. Flame throwers were firing napalm deep into enemy tunnels. As the Japanese fled out into a trench, Jack's foursome killed many at point-blank range. It was kill or be killed. It was here when they were so close to the enemy, Jack spotted two live grenades tossed into his trench.

Without hesitation, he covered both with his body, shoving them deep into the loose ash as far as possible with his hand and his rifle butt. To Jack's recollection, only one exploded, but he may not have heard the second one. The blast lifted him into the air and dropped him on his back.

Indestructible describes the numbness Jack felt throughout his entire body, the terrible ringing in his ears, the feeling of warm blood oozing from his head, chest, abdomen, and thighs. It ran down his throat. Pieces of wood from his rifle butt were blown into his chest. What little clothing was left was shredded. Because he remained conscious through the entire ordeal, Jack spit out blood in his throat that "cleared the way for life-giving oxygen."

Needless to say, getting Jack and thousands of other wounded men off Iwo Jima was a miraculous task in itself, but he eventually made it back to the States. For his absolute bravery above and beyond what could ever be required by mere military code, Jack was awarded the Medal of Honor. He considers the medal and his association with the Marines as a brotherhood, the highlight of his entire life.

I would recommend Indestructible to anyone who wants to know first-hand about the heroes of "the greatest generation" and what they endured to free this world of tyranny. The story is fascinating and well-written in the first person. Lucas' story makes me wonder what I would have done if faced with an uphill climb under enemy Japanese fire. But then, Jack was not me--Jack was a hero--a Marine!

Other fascinating stories:
Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific
Iwo Jima: Portrait of a Battle: United States Marines at War in the Pacific
The Bloody Battle for Suribachi: The Amazing Story of Iwo Jima that Inspired Flags of Our Fathers
Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones

The youngest man to ever receive the Congressional Medal of Honor tells his own life story.Jack Lucas is already a muscular,
powerful five feet eight inches tall and 180 pounds at 14.
Enraged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,he lies his way into the Marines and ends up stationed in Hawaii.There,his secret is discovered and he is refused permission to enter combat.Reduced to doing menial chores when not in the brig for
fighting,Jack gets so fed up that he stows away on his older cousin's ship(with the cousin's help,of course).He proves himself during the fierce Battle of Iwo Jima,where he saves several colleagues by throwing himself on two Japanese grenades
in a trench.Although gravely wounded,he survives and is awarded the Medal Of Honor.
This is a splendid life story,powerful,beautifully written,and told with unflinching honesty.As expected,much of the language is rough and the book is loaded with battle violence.But that is appropriate for the subject,and it makes the book more realistic.Not since Ron Kovic's "Born On The Fourth Of July"
has life in the military been presented so brilliantly.A magnificent book.
Also recommended:Born On The Fourth Of July;We Were Soldiers Once,And Young:Ia Drang,The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam

This is an engrossing book of a complete life, very dramatic as much for post war events as for heroism in combat. My father was on Iwo when I was about 5 and I have read many if not most of the accounts of the battle. Much of the events en route Iwo and after the War border on the unbelievable--the courts martial, drinking, anger management incidents (the one where he punched a guy at the VA who "irritated" him is tops). Man oh man did this guy have some personality problems. What does it say about a man whose therapist commits suicide and wife hires a hit man to kill him? Am sure there was a lot left unsaid in this book. Yet this man was definitely a hero and deserved every honor he got. You can't help but feel compassion for him and respect his accomplishments.

I recieved this book from my father that met Mr. Lucas in North Carolina and got the opportunity to get his signature in it. "Duke vs. UNC" Anyways I read it and loved it. The book shows the reality of war in a first person pov picture. The book gives readers an up close and raw view of Mr. Lucas's life, like it or not. I like the fact that Mr. Lucas doesn't portray himself as a "all american johnny do good" soldier/father/son. Because in reality these aren't perfect men fighting these wars. Nobody is perfect and that message came across in this book. Mr. Lucas had tremendous ups and downs in his life but kept referring back to God in either circumstance. Jack H Lucas is in a better place now.

There can be little doubt that this book wouldn't have been written if this aging hero had not been singled out by President Clinton during his presidency in a nationally televised State-of-the-Union address. Mr. Lucas was the President's special guest for the occasion, and one can understand why. While Lucas is an unquestioned military hero, he was less of a hero to his children and his first wife. (Those who were on the receiving end of his quick and violent temper may not view him in the hero light either.) A self-described womanizer, Lucas was the perfect foil for the Clinton plot to bolster the President's image by profiling a man who is living proof that no matter how badly you conduct your private life, it doesn't have to interfere with your service to country. This book will read like a poem to Clintonites, but may blanch a bit to the few of who still believe personal morality matters to whatever task you set yourself to.

Lucas is a hero, and his professions of faith in the Lord who protected him not only on Iwo Jima but in several other major life crisis redeems this book and makes it worthwhile. But if your looking for the ALL American hero, better look elsewhere for reading material.

Jack Lucas is in military school when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor; he is filled with rage and an overpowering desire for revenge. He enlists in the Marine Corps at age 14 after his mother finally signs a consent form and his step father, anxious to be rid of him, assures the recruiter he is 17. He ends up in Hawaii when his secret is discovered so he spends endless days doing dreary details or in the brig for fighting. Finally he can stand it no more and he stows away aboard his cousin's ship and lands with the 5th Marines on Iwo Jima. Good first hand account of the beach landing and the first night on the volcanic ash island. On D+2 he is in a trench with 3 other Marines trying to advance a few inches inland toward the airfield at the northern end of the island. His rifle jams and as he looks down to try and clear it he sees two grenades that land in the trench. Pushing one of his fellow Marines aside he jumps on top of one grenade and pulls the other one under his body as well. He is blown high into the air suffering many shrapnel wounds plus permanent nerve damage to his right arm and hand. The miracle is that he survived at all. The other 3 Marines whom he barely knew were unhurt.
The account of his trip in a stretcher to the beach and then onto a hospital ship to begin his long recovery period is heart wrenching. He gets back to the states and undergoes much PT during his rehabilitation. He suffers from PTSS but does not know what it is. His trip to Washington to have President Truman put the Congressional Medal of Honor around his neck is awe inspiring. Not bad for a 17 year old NC farm boy.
His personal life after the war has many ups and downs. That part of the book is not as riveting but is still part of his story.
I still cannot get over the bravery and self-sacrifice exhibited by this man/boy.