Commandant Thomas Holcomb

General Thomas Holcomb served as Commandant of the Marine Corps School at Quantico, Virginia, until November 1936, when he became Commandant of the Marine Corps. From 1936 to 1943, he ensured the Marine Corps was organized, trained, and equipped to meet global challenges. In The Hesperus Prophecy, on Christmas Day 1938, a perfect forgery of Marine Corps documents with General Holcomb’s signature permitted the Clypeate to board the USS Milwaukee. When Holcomb learned the Navy captured Declan Riordan, one of the men using these forged documents, he made certain Hoss and the guards in Dante’s Inferno gave the professor extra special attention.