Samuel M. Thomasson, Jr. – Brigadier General, United States Air Force

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Courtesy of the United States Air Force:

BRIGADIER GENERAL SAMUEL M. THOMASSON JR.
Retired May 1, 1973.   Died September 19, 2003.

Brigadier General Samuel M. Thomasson Jr., was staff judge advocate, Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, located at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.

General Thomasson was born in 1921, near DeKalb, Mississippi, where he attended elementary and high school. In 1938 he entered the University of Mississippi where he studied business administration and law for four years. In 1942 he was commissioned through the Reserve Officers Training Corps and entered active military service. Later he attended the University of Virginia where he received a bachelor of laws degree in 1947. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1948, and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1955.

During World War II, his assignments included personnel administration and procurement and production. He was released from active military service in June 1946 and reentered military service with the Air Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in June 1948, as a military attorney and has continued to perform as a judge advocate.

In November 1948 he was assigned to Far East Air Forces and served with Headquarters Fifth Air Force as assistant staff judge advocate in Japan and Korea. In November 1951 he was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in the Office of the Judge Advocate General as a member of a courts-martial board of review. He became deputy staff judge advocate, Mobile Air Materiel Area, Brookley Air Force Base, Alabama, in May 1955. He completed the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in 1958.

He was assigned in July 1958 as deputy staff judge advocate, Headquarters Air Materiel Forces, European Area, where his primary duty was providing legal support for an off-shore procurement program to provide supplies and services for Air Force units in the NATO countries. Also, he acted as an adviser in establishment of the NATO Supply Center designed to provide combined logistic support for the air arms of all NATO allies.

General Thomasson served as staff judge advocate, Air Force Missile Development Center, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, from July 1961 to July 1962, when he became staff judge advocate, Warner Robins Air Materiel Area. From November 1965 to June 1968 he assumed duties as deputy staff judge advocate and director of procurement law for Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

In June 1968, General Thomasson was assigned to Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, as deputy staff judge advocate, and in October 1969 he became staff judge advocate.

General Thomasson's hometown is DeKalb, Mississippi.

He was promoted to the temporary grade of Brigadier General effective August 1, 1969, with date of rank July 8, 1969.

Samuel M. Thomasson Jr., 82; Air Force General, Legal Officer
Sunday, September 28, 2003

Samuel M. Thomasson Jr., 82, a retired Air Force Brigadier General who after a long career in the Judge Advocate General Corps worked as deputy counsel to Potomac Electric Power Co., died of renal disease September 19, 2003, at his home in Springfield, Virginia.

General Thomasson was the chief legal officer for Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base for five years until his retirement from active military duty in 1973. In that position, he supervised more than 100 lawyers and served on the commander's management council.

From 1973 to 1990, he worked for Pepco at its headquarters in Washington as a specialist in contract and procurement law. He also negotiated union contracts and settled workers' compensation claims.

Gen. Thomasson was born in Narkeeta, Mississippi, and raised in DeKalb, Mississippi. He attended the University of Mississippi and was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II. He was a 1947 graduate of the University of Virginia law school and reentered the newly established Air Force the following year.

He served as assistant staff judge advocate in Japan and Korea from 1948 to 1951. He then was assigned to the Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon as a member of a three-member appellate review board.

In the late 1950s, while stationed in France, he negotiated with European governments on behalf of U.S. bases over supply and service contracts. He settled in the Washington area in 1968.

Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Mildrene Chaney Thomasson of Springfield; a son, Samuel M. Thomasson III of Los Angeles; a daughter, Elizabeth Ann Thomasson of Alexandria; two sisters; and two brothers.

THOMASSON, SAMUEL M., JR.
BRIGADIER GENERAL, USAF (RET.)

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On Friday, September 19, 2003 SAMUEL M. THOMASSON, JR. (age 82) of Springfield, Virginia. Son of Samuel M. Thomasson Sr. and Cora Lee Hudson Thomasson (deceased); beloved husband of Mildrene “Chaney” Thomasson and loving father of Samuel M. Thomasson III of Los Angeles, California, and Elizabeth Ann Thomasson of Alexandria, Virginia. Survived by two sisters, Elizabeth Hedgpeth and “Knootsie” Mitchell, two brothers, Hugh Hudson Thomasson and Bill Thomasson, three nieces and two nephews.

Funeral and interment services will be held at the Post Chapel (Old Chapel) in the Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday, October 9, 2003 at 9 a.m. Information and directions can be obtained at www.arlingtoncemetary.org or from the Demaine Funeral Home. A reception at the Ft. Myer Officers' Club will follow the service. Memorial contributions may be made to the Thomasson Scholarship Fund, School of Nursing, University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677.

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