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The following biography was written by Hap Rocketto

Gunnery Sergeant John M. Thomas began his military career in the United States Army where he rose to Quartermaster Sergeant in Troop G of the Third United Cavalry. A portly disheveled trooper he went Distinguisehd with eth rifle amd won the Leech Cup in 1915. During the Great War Thomas was given a commission. With peace came the demobilization of the huge Army and he was faced with being reduced to his former status as a non-commissioned officer. Not wishing to be junior to those who were so recently under his command he left the Army after 18 years and enlisted in the Marines in 1919.

Not surprisingly he stood out in recruit training. Major Harry Smith, the most successful team captain and coach in Marine Corps history, quickly appointed him the First Sergeant at the Parris Island range. Within a year he had won the National Individual Pistol Match and repeated in 1921. By 1920 he had earned three qualifying medals at he same time as Lieutenant William Whaling, making them the Marine Corps first Distinguished Pistol Shots. Four years later he earned the Marine Corps Distinguished Marksman Badge to accompany his Army one.

During the same time frame, 1921-23, Thomas won Marine Corps Pistol Trophy twice and the Lauchheimer Trophy three times. He was, undeniably, the finest marksman in the Marines and proved it again by winning the All Around Championship-pistol, rifle, and shotgun-title at Wakefield, Massachusetts.

Thomas retired in 1926 in a blaze of glory; he won the President’s Match, collecting a letter from President Woodrow Wilson and a selected Springfield 1903 trophy rifle in the process, and moved from active duty to a well earned retirement and an honored place in Marine Corps shooting history.