Roverron
12-11-2013, 06:15 AM
Badass of the week.......
Marine Pfc Lucas
Rushing through the brutal, endless curtains of strafing machine gun and artillery fire that raked the beach, Lucas grabbed his newly-acquired weapon and charged ahead, undaunted by the explosions and bullets zipping all around. He ran ahead, reached the relative safety of the treeline, and fell in with a four-man fireteam that had already started working their way through the dense jungle, trying to clear out one of the most tenacious and ferociously-hardcore enemies the United States ever faced.
Lucas and his men were making their way through a ravine, fighting every step of the way, when suddenly some bad shit started to go down. It turned out that the Japanese had dug this ridiculously-intricate series of caverns and secret passages that ran through the entire island, so just as Lucas and his buddies thought they were going to launch their final assault on a Japanese machine gun nest, they came to the horrible realization that all 11 men in that pillbox had gone into a tunnel, crawled underneath them, and popped up directly behind the Marines.
The Marines turned to fire, and in Jack Lucas' much-awaited first moments of real battle his first round went through the helmet of an enemy soldier, killing him on the spot.
His second round jammed in the rifle. I guess that's what happens with rifles you pick up in ankle-deep water on blood-soaked sandy beaches.
It was at this point that Jack Lucas saw the live hand grenade that had just landed at his feet. He threw his body on it without hesitation, screaming for the other Marines to take cover.
When a second enemy grenade landed within arms' reach, Lucas grabbed it and jammed it under his body as well.
--------
The rest of the Marine fire team, pumped-up by Lucas' bravery and the fact that they weren't currently all dead, proceeded to fight like demons and push the Japanese back, driving them from the position and capturing that sector.
When they came back to take the dog tags off of their fallen brother, they noticed that not only was Lucas alive, he was actually still conscious.
- See more at: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=939538924712#sthash.IJl2WnIm.dpuf
This man was one heck of a hero. More of his story after the war....
attending his first day of Ninth Grade with his Medal of Honor around his neck.
He finished college, went on a USO speaking tour,
was married three times, survived his second wife's attempt to hire a hitman to murder him
(she hadn't got the message from the Japanese that this guy was impervious to conventional weapons),
and then, at age 40, decided to get over his fear of heights by enlisting in the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper.
On his first training jump, both parachutes failed to open. As his team leader astutely pointed out, "Jack was the last one out of the plane and the first one on the ground." -
Marine Pfc Lucas
Rushing through the brutal, endless curtains of strafing machine gun and artillery fire that raked the beach, Lucas grabbed his newly-acquired weapon and charged ahead, undaunted by the explosions and bullets zipping all around. He ran ahead, reached the relative safety of the treeline, and fell in with a four-man fireteam that had already started working their way through the dense jungle, trying to clear out one of the most tenacious and ferociously-hardcore enemies the United States ever faced.
Lucas and his men were making their way through a ravine, fighting every step of the way, when suddenly some bad shit started to go down. It turned out that the Japanese had dug this ridiculously-intricate series of caverns and secret passages that ran through the entire island, so just as Lucas and his buddies thought they were going to launch their final assault on a Japanese machine gun nest, they came to the horrible realization that all 11 men in that pillbox had gone into a tunnel, crawled underneath them, and popped up directly behind the Marines.
The Marines turned to fire, and in Jack Lucas' much-awaited first moments of real battle his first round went through the helmet of an enemy soldier, killing him on the spot.
His second round jammed in the rifle. I guess that's what happens with rifles you pick up in ankle-deep water on blood-soaked sandy beaches.
It was at this point that Jack Lucas saw the live hand grenade that had just landed at his feet. He threw his body on it without hesitation, screaming for the other Marines to take cover.
When a second enemy grenade landed within arms' reach, Lucas grabbed it and jammed it under his body as well.
--------
The rest of the Marine fire team, pumped-up by Lucas' bravery and the fact that they weren't currently all dead, proceeded to fight like demons and push the Japanese back, driving them from the position and capturing that sector.
When they came back to take the dog tags off of their fallen brother, they noticed that not only was Lucas alive, he was actually still conscious.
- See more at: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=939538924712#sthash.IJl2WnIm.dpuf
This man was one heck of a hero. More of his story after the war....
attending his first day of Ninth Grade with his Medal of Honor around his neck.
He finished college, went on a USO speaking tour,
was married three times, survived his second wife's attempt to hire a hitman to murder him
(she hadn't got the message from the Japanese that this guy was impervious to conventional weapons),
and then, at age 40, decided to get over his fear of heights by enlisting in the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper.
On his first training jump, both parachutes failed to open. As his team leader astutely pointed out, "Jack was the last one out of the plane and the first one on the ground." -