He graduated from the Taft School in 1942 and went on to Dartmouth College, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), before joining the United States Army Air Corps.

"Mr. Thomas describes the brutal Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet beginning in 1950..."[9] and about the armed Tibetan resistance by citizens and lamas which began in the mid-1950s.

"[11][12] In 1954, Thomas and wife Mary Taylor Pryor, known as "Tay", flew a Cessna 180 around much of the world, logging over 50,000 miles.

Much as his father had done he ventured into the harsh environment of the ice islands where research was done by scientists on the Arctic Ocean and its atmosphere including the Auroras.

He published his adventure in National Geographic in 1965 as well as numerous other productions and publications, including a movie on king crab in the Aleutian Islands.