John Thomason

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John Thomason or Lieutenant Colonel John Williamson Thomason Jr born in Huntsville, Texas 28 February 1893-died 12 March 1944 in San Diego, California was a United States Marine, author and illustrator of several books and magazine stories.^[1]

1 Military and literary career
2 Books
3 Quotes
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Military and literary career

The son of a physican and the grandson of Confederate General James Longstreet's chief of staff Major TJ Goree, John W. Thomason enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on 6 April 1917 and served until his death in 1944. In 1917 Thomason married Leda Bass and had one son, John "Jack" W Thomason III born in 1920.^[2] Serving as a Marine in World War II, Jack died in an airplane crash in Calcutta, India in 1947.^[3]

During World War I Thomason served as the executive officer of the 49th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and was awarded the Navy Cross.^[4] Thomason served in, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicarauga. He led the Horse Marines at the Legation in Peking, commanded the 38th Company in China, commanded the Marine Detachment of the USS Rochester (CA-2), and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment at San Diego then was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the beginning of American involvement in World War II Thomason was assigned to Admiral Chester Nimitz's staff as an inspector of Marine installations and visited Guadalcanal during the fighting. The U.S Navy destroyer USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) was named after him.

During a posting as commander of the Marine Detachment Naval Ammunition Depot in Dover, Delaware, he met an old Marine Corps Base Quantico classmate and comrade in arms from the World War, Laurence Stallings famed for authoring What Price Glory. Stallings introduced him to the editor of Scribner's Magazine who engaged Thomason to write and illustrate for the magazine whilst remaining on active duty with the Marine Corps.^[5]

[edit] Books

Thomason wrote and illustrated over sixty short stories and magazine articles and wrote and edited book reviews for the American Mercury magazine^[6]. His books include-

Fix Bayonets (1926) (short stories collection)
The United States Army Second Division Northwest of Chateau Theirry in World War I (1927)
Red Pants and Other Stories (1927) (short stories collection)
Jeb Stuart (1930)
Salt Winds and Gobi Dust (1934) (short stories collection)
The Adventures of General Marbot by Himself (1935) (editor and illustrator)
A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of Tennessee by Himself (illustrator only)
Gone to Texas (1937) (novel)
Lone Star Preacher (1941) (novel)
-- and a Few Marines (1943) (short stories collection)

[edit] Quotes

The professional soldiers and sailors of this country are a singularly self-contained and inoffensive group, connected in no way with any one religion or caste, but constituting in fact a cross section of the whole population. The Army, as the buffalo and the Indian, subsists remotely on reservations. - The Case for the Soldier- A Commentary on Critics Scribner's Magazine 1935