Kitty Hawk (CVA 63) - Naval Cruise Book

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Commander John M. Thomas, USN Commander John M. Thomas was born in Iowa City, Iowa, on May 2, 1918, and at- tended parochial and public schools in that state, completing high school at St. Ambrose Academy located in Davenport, Iowa. He attended St. Ambrose College and later Northwestern University in Evanston, llli- nois. Commander Thomas entered flight train- ing in August 1941 and was designated a Naval Aviator in Corpus Christi, Texas. He joined his first carrier based squadron, Composite Squadron ONE at San Diego, California. He remained with the squad- ron during its trip through the Panama Canal to the Atlantic and participated in anti-submarine patrols aboard various f'jeep carriers until February, 1944. Dur- ing the period, Composite Squadron ONE was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation while attached to the USS CARD. In Febru- ary 1944, he was assigned to VF-74, a Hell Cat squadron attached to the USS KAASAN BAY, and participated in the in- vasion of Southern France, where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Commander J. M. Thomas was next as- signed to Patuxent River, Maryland, as a Project Test Pilot completing the Flight Test School , which was the forerunner of the now famous Test Pilot School. During his tenure at Patuxent, he was assigned to evaluate several foreign aircraft, including the Japanese Tony and Zeke, and the German Dornier 335 . He was one of the first Naval aviators to fly jet aircraft which in- 24 cluded the Bell P-59 and the Lockheed P-80. ln 1951, he attended the General Line School in Monterey, California, and in January 1952 proceeded to Washington, D.C. and spent two years in OP-54, with the Aviation Personnel Distribution Section. ln March 1954, he was assigned as Command- ing Officer of Fighter Squadron 24, based aboard the USS ESSEX as part of Carrier Air Group TWO. VF-24 was the first squad- ron on the West Coast to have the F9F-6 swept-wing jet aircraft. The squadron com- pleted an eight-month deployment to the Western Pacific, participating in the Ta- chen operations. From August 1957 to June 1958, Com- mander Thomas attended the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. Upon graduation, he was assigned as Commanding Officer of Fighter Squadron ONE TWO ONE, a replacement fighter squadron. This unit was engaged in training Fleet All-Weather Fighter Pilots in the F3H aircraft. During this period VF-121 was awarded the Chief of Naval Operations Safety Award for com- piling 16,000 hours and over 3,000 carrier landings without an accident. ln August 1960, Commander John M. Thomas reported to the USS KITTY HAWK iCVA-631 as the Prospective Executive Of- ficer, prior to the vessel's commissioning. .Married to the former Miss Germaine An- toinette De Waelsche of Moline, Illinois, Commander Thomas has four childreng John Patrick, Steven Edward, Linda Jane, and Jeffrey Michael.

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