On November 9, 1941, the New York Giants beat the Detroit Lions 20-13. On the Giants’ team was a promising rookie from Ennis, Texas, Jack Lummus. The American entry into World War II would end any chance Lummus could have of earning football trophies, but as a Marine, he would earn the nation’s highest honor for valor in combat.
An exceptional athlete, Lummus received numerous athletic scholarship offers, but chose his local university, Baylor. There, Lummus was a standout on the football team, but also played as a center fielder with the baseball team. It was likely that Lummus had a future in professional sports, but instead, he chose to leave Baylor University in 1941 and join what was then the Army Air Corps. Despite showing as much skill for flying as he did with athletics, Lummus’s aircraft wing clipped a fence on his first solo flight. It was the end of flying for Lummus as he washed out of the program.
Unsure of any military future, he entered the New York Giants’ training camp. He made the 1941 team and played nine games as an end. In the game against the Detroit Lions in November, Lummus played against future Army officer and Medal of Honor Recipient Maurice Britt. The Giants ended their 1941 season with a loss to the Chicago Bears, and like other professional sports, saw many of their players leave for military service.
One of those players was Lummus, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 1942. With some college education, he qualified for the Corps’ Officer Candidate Course and was commissioned a second lieutenant in December 1942. As the war in the Pacific intensified, Lummus spent some time as an instructor before he was assigned to the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division.
On February 19, 1945, First Lieutenant Lummus, landed in the first wave on Iwo Jima. A small island in the Pacific, there were an estimated 21,000 Japanese troops dug into the island in a series of cave networks. Although the American forces outnumbered the Japanese three to one, the battle for Iwo Jima became the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history.
After three weeks of intense fighting, Lummus was leading a rifle platoon against Japanese fortifications on the northern tip of the island. It was March 8, and the 5th Marines had been fighting dug-in Japanese forces for several days and nights without rest. That afternoon, Lummus’s platoon was stopped by intense enemy fire. Without hesitating, Lummus moved in front of the line to neutralize the Japanese position. A grenade blast knocked him down, but the 6-foot 3-inch tall athletic Lummus recovered and continued.
Lummus successfully destroyed the enemy gun emplacement before he came under intense fire and was once again knocked down by an enemy grenade blast. Once more, he got up, ignored the wounds he sustained, and continued alone. Lummus charged a pillbox and took out another enemy gun crew. He then returned to his men and encouraged them to move forward as he directed tanks to fire on Japanese positions.
As the enemy fire picked up, Lummus ran ahead alone and took out a third heavily fortified enemy position. His men continued behind him as Lummus attacked Japanese foxholes and traps. Lummus’s incredible display of courage and leadership came to a dramatic halt when he stepped on a landmine. Propping himself up on one elbow, Lummus yelled at his men to keep going.
A Navy corpsman began to triage Lummus’s wounds. He was transferred to the 5th Division Field Hospital in critical condition. The blast had seriously damaged his legs and even though he received numerous blood transfusions, the damage Lummus had sustained was too much. Knowing that no amount of medical care would save his life, Lummus remarked to the surgeon “Well, Doc, the New York Giants lost a mighty good end today.” Jack Lummus died in surgery on Iwo Jima on March 8, 1945. He was 29 years old.
On Memorial Day, May 30, 1946, a special Medal of Honor ceremony was held at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Ennis. Admiral Joseph Clark, Chief of Naval Air Basic Training in Corpus Christi, attended to present the Medal of Honor. After honoring the Ennis residents who were killed in the war and several addresses and speeches, the Medal was presented to Lummus’s mother, Laura.
Today, Lummus’s memory is honored in his hometown of Ennis and at Baylor University. In Ennis, an intermediate school has been named in his honor. A VFW bears his name At Baylor, Lummus is included in the Ring of Honor, which highlights Lummus and another Baylor alumnus and Medal of Honor Recipient John Kane. In the 1980s, the US Navy named a Military Sealift Command ship after Lummus, continuing the legacy of honor Medal of Honor Recipients through ship naming.
Kali Schick is Senior Historian for the
National Medal of Honor Museum
