Born on 28 Feb. 1893 in Huntsville, Texas, Thomason came from a prosperous family. Many of his antecedents had served the Confederacy, and when his time came, he well served the United States. His father was a doctor who wished his son to follow in his footsteps. Thomason, however, decided he would write and illustrate. Some college training and teaching in local grade schools was followed by a stint at a New York art school. He briefly served on a local newspaper and then, while in New Orleans, enlisted in the Marine Corps branch of the National Naval Volunteers on the day war was declared.

Momentary training in New Orleans was followed by transfer to Newport News, Va., and a regular commission (temporary) as a second lieutenant of Marines. During his training period at Quantico, Va., on 24 Aug. 1917, he married his lifelong sweetheart, Leda Bass, daughter of Huntsville neighbors. With training completed in February 1918, Thomason was assigned to the 3d Replacement Battalion and shipped aboard USS Henderson (AP-1), landing in France in early May. His first permanent assignment was as a platoon leader with the 49th Company, 1st Bn, Fifth Marine Regiment. This was followed by his arrival near Chateau-Thierry and harsh combat at what became known as the Battle of Belleau Wood.

Thomason fought throughout that June campaign, followed by the two-day struggle at Soissons. There, wounded, he earned a Navy Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart for taking out two machine-gun nests and disposing of 13 German soldiers. After a brief spell of recovery, he was assigned for training at the U.S. Army school at Andilly, France. JWT was back with his company in time to serve at St. Mihiel. That was a relatively easy period for the 2d Division, but they would pay for their cushy four days when the next affair, Blanc Mont, began on 3 Oct.

On the next day, 4 Oct., the 5th Marines took their worse one-day pounding in history. Especially badly hit was 1/5, Thomason’s own; at the end of the day barely 130 officers and men were able to retire. Their memories recalled that day and location as “The Box.” They were the center of all German attention: machine guns and especially artillery shellfire. The regiment was all done, as would be the 6th Marines and their Army comrades of the 9th and 23d Infantry regiments before the campaign was run.

After Blanc Mont, Thomason developed influenza, as would so many other members of the American Expeditionary Forces and soldiers of all nations. He recovered in time and was fortunate to escape the bloody crossing of the Meuse River on the night of 10 and 11 Nov. Nevertheless, he was back in the ranks for the occupation of Germany, returning home with his Brigade in July/August 1919.

Unlike some of his colleagues, the decision to remain a Marine wasn’t made out of necessity. His prosperous family wanted him to return home and engage in a career like so many of his illustrious forebears and his father, in medicine or in the field of law. Instead, he remained in the Marine Corps because he liked being a member of that small, active military service he had grown to love, as would and had so many others before and after him.

What made Thomason different from his colleagues was that he had several other very marketable skills. He wrote exceedingly well, and he superbly illustrated numerous books, each of which was exceptionally well received. His accumulated wealth allowed him and Leda Bass Thomason to live very well while he was a junior officer of Marines.

Additionally, he illustrated many books for other authors. If that didn’t keep him busy enough, he wrote and illustrated numerous short stories for various popular magazines, including, among others, the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty. He also edited and wrote book reviews for the American Mercury magazine. All this was accomplished while being a full-time active and efficient Marine officer.

His services during the following several years included Cuba, where his wife gave birth to John William Thomason III, then duty aboard USS Rochester (CA-2), flagship of the Special Service Squadron.

Next he became commanding officer of the Marine Detachment, Naval Ammunition Depot, Dover, Del. During this period he met an old comrade of the 4th Brigade, Laurence T. Stallings Jr., a playwright (“What Price Glory”), editor and novelist who in turn introduced him to Maxwell Perkins, senior editor of Charles Scribner’s Sons. Thomason was engaged to write short stories and illustrate them for their house magazine. This was followed by a book titled “Fix Bayonets.”

Thomason was on his way. He wrote and illustrated as though he had nothing else on his agenda. Magazine articles continued, and his first book was followed by “Red Pants,” another collection of his short stories.

Because of his skill, Thomason was selected by the Commandant, Major General John A. Lejeune, to work with the U.S. Army in compiling a WW I history of the 2d Division. His assignment was to write the chapter on the Battle of Belleau Wood. For several years he traveled and wrote, based upon divisional records, German, French and American, what is, undoubtedly, the last word on the June 1918 fighting of the 2d Division.

It was never published, however. The reasons are many, but essentially several senior officers, Army and Marine, resented some factual material being included. Later it was determined that the same sort of thing happened to Army officers working on other aspects of the history. Thomason refused to alter history and went back to serve with Marines. He was off to Peiping, China, with the Legation Guard, where he commanded the Horse Marines aboard Mongolian ponies and later 38th Co, followed by assignment as an aide to the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Henry L. Roosevelt, a retired Marine officer.

This service was not disagreeable, but Thomason longed to be back with the troops. After Col Roosevelt’s demise in 1936, JWT went to the Army War College and, upon completion, to the Naval War College. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel following that stint and was posted to the 2d Marine Brigade at San Diego, finally back with the troops as the commander of the 2d Bn, 6th Marines.

All during this period, Thomason continued his writing and illustrating. After “Red Pants,” he wrote “Marines and Others,” followed by a superb biography of Jeb Stuart, which broke sales records. He, in the meantime, continued to write and illustrate for various magazines, to include Leatherneck and the Marine Corps Gazette.

His book, “Salt Winds and Gobi Dust,” in 1934, was another classic, which floundered only because a severe economic depression and lack of ready cash interfered with sales. “Gone to Texas,” a novel of post-Civil War Texas, was well received in 1937. This was followed by what some people consider his greatest novel, “Lone Star Preacher,” a biographical sketch of a real chaplain who had served in Hood’s Texas Brigade.

In 1940, because Thomason’s health precluded it, his field duty ceased. He was instead assigned to the Office of Naval Operations for duty with the Office of Naval Intelligence. His short stories, written while with the Special Service Squadron in the early 1920s, marked him as a man who was familiar with Latin America—no more, perhaps, than any other Marine with brief service there, but that was considered to be where his “expertise” was, so he was assigned to investigations of Nazi activities in the Caribbean.

At this time, there was serious thought given to intervene with the 1st Marine Brigade in Vichy, France’s island of Martinique—essentially, to take control of the French navy’s heavy ships then in that port. During this tour of duty, Thomason would fly over the sea and land at various ports, make his salutations, then fly off to another “hot spot.” He worked hard, never giving an inch to any of the younger men, and always reported early and left his office late. Regardless of his commitment to his post, he was not happy being kept off the firing line.

One more tome, “And a Few Marines,” came off the Scribner plates and presses; it was, like so many other war-oriented materials, exceptionally well received. This would be his final book. A few more short stories were published, but he wasn’t strong enough to illustrate them, and they were finished by H. von Schmidt.

Meanwhile, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States was, as usual, unprepared for war. Thomason was finally relieved from the ONI and proceeded to several other duties on the West Coast, including being a staff officer to Brigadier General Harry K. Pickett at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Thomason had failed obligatory physicals and was certified as capable of Stateside duty only. His monotony in the training program was briefly interrupted when his son Jack, an officer of Marines, returned from overseas and spent the Thanksgiving holiday with JWT and Leda at San Diego.

Following that, JWT was compelled to enter the naval hospital at San Diego. Released in January 1944, he returned to duty, but the following month, declining in health, he reentered the hospital. Thomason remained hospitalized until the 12th day of March when he succumbed to his many diseases. This was a sad day for the Corps, and most if not all Marine bases in the continental United States mourned the passing of a great Marine.

On 30 Sept. 1944, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Thomason (DD-760) was launched in San Francisco, the Marine Corps named a plot of ground “Thomason Park” at Quantico, and Texas installed his portrait painted by his niece, Mrs. Charles H. Atkinson III, in its Hall of Heroes at the State Capitol Building in Austin. Thomason has been dead for more than 60 years, but even today, he remains a Giant of the Corps.