Portable flamethrower operators on Iwo Jima died at a 92% casualty rate. One 24-year-old Navy electrician decided to change that.
In May 1944, Electrician's Mate Second Class Joseph Kissel joined a top secret unit at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. His mission — take the flamethrowers that were killing their own operators and mount them inside Sherman tanks. Eleven hundred electrical connections. One hundred fifty pounds of welding rod. Eight machines that no one knew would even work in combat.
When those tanks hit the black beaches of Iwo Jima, Kissel didn't stay behind. He climbed inside and rode into battle himself. For thirty-two days straight, under mortar fire and sniper rounds, he kept every system running — even after taking a direct hit from a Japanese anti-tank gun. What happened when Marine commanders saw what his tanks could do changed everything.
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