Harold Vernon Thomas

Harold was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 10 December 1921, the middle child of five raised by Lee and Louise Thomas.

Few details are known about Harold’s life before the war. He grew up in the South Side area of Columbus, attended South High School, and palled about with friends and his younger brother Robert. By 1940, “Bud” Thomas was employed as a quarry worker specializing in soil erosion control.

Harold quit the quarry in the summer of 1941 and enlisted in the regular Marine Corps, intending to serve a four-year hitch. After completing boot camp at Parris Island, he was assigned duty at the Marine Barracks, Naval Air Station Cape May, New Jersey. Thomas earned his PFC stripe in January 1942, and continued serving at the air station through the first months of American involvement in World War II. While there, he learned that his brother Robert had also enlisted in the Marines.

In the summer of 1942, Bud’s fortunes changed. He lost his PFC rating – the reasons are not clear, but it was likely a disciplinary issue – and was transferred from Cape May to a replacement draft bound for overseas service. He joined Fox Company, Second Battalion, 2nd Marines in time to participate in the later stages of the Guadalcanal campaign, and survived his first combat experience without injury – though he may have picked up malaria during his stay in the Solomon Islands.

At the end of January 1943, Bud’s regiment was withdrawn from the combat zone and sent to New Zealand for a period of rest and recuperation. This was sorely needed; Bud was hospitalized during the spring, likely for a tropical disease. When released, he plunged straight back into training. By the summer, Vernon was deemed ready for another chance at the PFC stripe – and this time, he held on to his promotion.

While stationed in New Zealand, Bud probably made a special effort to visit his brother – now Corporal Robert D. Thomas of the Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion. The two might have even trained together as Bud’s rifle company practiced embarking and disembarking from the LVTs crewed by Bob’s unit. Late in the summer, however, Bob was transferred to Samoa for special duty.

In mid-October, Bud Thomas and his buddies in the Second Battalion boarded the USS Zeilin for a large-scale training exercise. It was clearly a rehearsal for another combat operation, and when the ships departed from New Zealand in early November, there was much speculation about where and what the next target would be.

On 20 November 1943, the Second Battalion 2nd Marines was assigned the task of spearheading the assault on Betio’s Red Beach Two. PFC Allen’s Fox Company would land on the eastern half of the beach, fight their way inland, and help secure a vital airfield. If all went according to plan, they would walk ashore standing up and have the situation in hand by evening.

Just as in training, the Marines of 2/2 would land from LVTs. Some of the vehicles were brand-new LVT-2 “Water Buffalo” models – crewed by Marines hastily trained in Samoa. Two tractors from Bob Thomas’ company were assigned to the Zeilin – so there is a chance, albeit small, that the brothers rode in to combat together.

Unfortunately, the plan went right out the window in the first few minutes of the assault. Extremely heavy Japanese fire tore into the amphibian tractors carrying the Marines ashore; many of the vehicles never even reached the beach. The 2nd Marines suffered an astonishing number of casualties in moments; they managed to secure a toehold on the beach, but facing withering firepower, few managed to get over the sea wall and into the Japanese defenses beyond.

PFC Harold Thomas was one of nineteen Fox Company Marines to lose his life on the first day of the battle. He was hit in the stomach during the landing and died somewhere in the vicinity of Beach Red 2. Although muster rolls and casualty reports both indicate he was buried some time after the battle – either two or three days – the exact location was not known.

Although the LVT units suffered heavy casualties as well, Bob Thomas was lucky – he survived Betio, and the war.

In 1947, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company arrived on Betio to exhume the tiny island’s many cemeteries. They were unable to locate any remains identifiable as Bud Thomas, and his case was declared permanently closed in 1949.

Decades later, a DPAA directive led to the exhumation of unidentified remains in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. One of the cases – designated as Betio X-87 – was singled out and examined for a possible connection to PFC Thomas. While the two possessed similar physical and dental characteristics, a DNA test was the final piece of the puzzle.

PFC Harold Vernon Thomas had been buried as an unknown in the Central Division Cemetery – just inland from Beach Red 2. As X-87, he lay in the “Punchbowl” Plot F, Grave 1004 for more than seventy years. Finally, on 7 May 2018, he was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Arlington National Cemetery