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Leighton Willhite was just 19 when he was tasked with driving a tank called “Lucky” ashore at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.
On Friday, 80 years after Japan’s surrender, the 100-year-old Willhite was reunited with Lucky in a moment of living history hosted by the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle.
Lucky represented the Marine Corps’ newest standard tank, which at the time was making its combat debut at Iwo Jima. 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.
“If I were reunited with one of the helicopters I flew in the Army, it would be pretty amazing,” Bernstein told InsideNoVa. “So, I can’t begin to imagine what [Willhite] must feel to come see something he hasn’t seen in 80 years.”
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.
And then came the moment everyone was waiting for: Willhite entered the museum’s support facility Friday to meet face-to-face with Lucky.
“I probably wasn’t the best driver in the world, but I wasn’t the worst either,” Willhite, an Indiana resident, chuckled. “It was my home.”
Bernstein wheeled Willhite around the tank to point out the different identifying features, as Willhite reminisced on his time in the service.
“It’s amazing,” Willhite said. “That tank was my life.”
