This article, "The First Thompsons," appeared originally in the February 2006 issue of American Rifleman. To subscribe to the magazine, visit the NRA membership page and select American Rifleman as ...

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Tom Hanks famously depicted Captain John Miller in “Saving Private Ryan” toting his trusty Thompson submachine gun — “Tommy gun” — from the beaches of Normandy far into the interior of France in 1944.

Except for Al Capone, Gen. John Thompson would be forgotten by all but serious devotees of military history. The two never met, being cut from different cloth. Thompson, a khaki-clad military man who ...