On Friday, 80 years after Japan’s surrender, Leighton Willhite was reunited with the tank he called “Lucky” that he drove ashore at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, when he was just 19

During intense combat around Hill 362A, north of Mount Suribachi, Lucky’s crew supported infantry units and took part in life-saving rescue efforts. When another tank, “Jeannie,” became trapped, Willhite volunteered to cover his tank commander, Lt. Leonard Blake, as they moved to assist the stricken crew, which earned Willhite the Bronze Star with valor and Blake the Silver Star.

After the battle, Lucky returned to Hawaii in April 1945 and was one of 72 tanks selected for conversion into CB-H5 flamethrower tanks in preparation for the planned invasion of Japan. After Japan’s surrender, it was transferred to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where it remained largely unnoticed until the early 2000s.

“I had no clue the significance,” Master Gunnery Sgt. Lisa Marshall, who was involved in the initial recovery of the tank in 2001, told InsideNoVa. “It was cool; it was a tank that was embedded in the ground, and [it] took a lot of hard work with a shovel getting it dug out enough to be able to get a sled under it to pull it out. But I didn’t realize until just the other day how significant it was.”

In June 2023, Jonathan Bernstein, the museum’s arms and armor curator, traveled to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Arizona to inspect the tank. By climbing aboard and analyzing its weld scars and field modifications, he was able to identify the tank as part of C Company, 5th Tank Battalion.

Paint excavation later revealed the original name, Lucky, and C Company’s tactical markings, confirming its battlefield role and linking it to its original crew, including Willhite.

Lucky is now one of just six confirmed Iwo Jima Sherman tanks in existence.

Bernstein said restoration efforts of the tank will begin shortly, and in the coming years the tank will be displayed in the National Museum of the Marine Corps for visitors to see.

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