The Flamethrower Marine Who Lived Through Iwo Jima

Seventy pounds of steel and jellied gasoline on his back, a few seconds of fire in the tanks, and — the internet insists — a life expectancy of four minutes. Corporal Hershel "Woody" Williams was the only flamethrower operator left standing in his company on Iwo Jima. He came home. So did Don Graves. Every famous number attached to men like them — ninety-two percent, three hundred thirty-five in and eighteen out, four minutes — is either about the wrong men, from the wrong place, or from nowhere at all. Here is where they actually came from, and what the weapon really cost.