28 Facts About Thomas Holcomb

General Thomas Holcomb was a United States Marine Corps officer who served as the seventeenth Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1936 to 1943.

Thomas Holcomb was the first Marine to achieve the rank of general, and was a strong supporter of racial segregation in the Marine Corps.

Thomas Holcomb attended private schools there until 1893 when his father took a position in the Treasury Department of president Cleveland's second administration and moved the family to Washington, DC Thomas Holcomb graduated from Western High School in 1897.

Thomas Holcomb's curriculum included military drills in uniform; here Holcomb learned about military discipline.

Thomas Holcomb's father encouraged Holcomb to enter the business world.

In 1898 Thomas Holcomb took a job as a cost clerk at the Bethlehem Steel works in Sparrows Point, Maryland, for two years.

Thomas Holcomb was appointed a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps from civilian life on April 13,1900.

Second Lieutenant Thomas Holcomb was on detached duty with a company of Marines organized for service with a Marine battalion attached to the North Atlantic Fleet from September 1902 to April 1903.

Thomas Holcomb was promoted to first lieutenant March 3,1903 and put in charge of the US Marine Corps rifle team bringing to championship in 1911.

Thomas Holcomb served in the Philippine Islands from April 1904 to August 1905, and in October and November 1906.

Thomas Holcomb was on duty with the Legation Guard in Peking, China, from September 1905 to September 1906.

Thomas Holcomb was appointed a captain May 13,1908 and from December of that year to July 1910, he again served with the Legation Guard at Peking.

Thomas Holcomb continued on duty in Peking as attache on the staff of the American Minister for study of the Chinese language and remained until May 1911.

Captain Thomas Holcomb served as Inspector of Target Practice in the Marine Corps from October 1914 to August 1917.

From August 1917 to January 1918, Major Thomas Holcomb commanded the 2d Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia, in preparation for overseas duty.

Thomas Holcomb was appointed lieutenant colonel on June 4,1920.

From August 1927 to February 1930, Col Thomas Holcomb commanded the Marine detachment, American Legation, Peking, China.

Thomas Holcomb was promoted to colonel on December 22,1928.

Thomas Holcomb was then ordered to the Army War College, graduating a year later.

Thomas Holcomb was promoted to brigadier general on February 1,1935.

Thomas Holcomb served as commandant of the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico, Virginia, until November 1936.

On December 1,1936, Thomas Holcomb returned to Headquarters Marine Corps to assume the office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Thomas Holcomb said that African Americans had no right to serve as Marines.

Thomas Holcomb thus became the first Marine ever to hold the rank of general.

Thomas Holcomb resigned from this position on June 15,1948.

In retirement, Thomas Holcomb lived in St Mary's City, Maryland, where he managed the family farm until 1956.

In 1944 Thomas Holcomb was elected an honorary member of the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati.

General Thomas Holcomb died in New Castle, Delaware, on May 24,1965, aged 85.