Lt. Gen Frank Tharin, Hero of Wake Island, Dies at 79

Lt. Gen. Frank C. Tharin, decorated hero of the battle for Wake Island in World War II and former commander at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, has died after a long illness. He was 79.

A longtime resident of Laguna Beach, Tharin died March 21 in San Rafael in Marin County, where he had been hospitalized for the past eight months.

The Marine aviator won the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Air Medals and a Purple Heart for his part in sinking a Japanese cruiser and downing Japanese fighter planes in the 17-day fight for Wake Island. The tiny Pacific atoll fell to the Japanese Dec. 23, 1941, less than three weeks after the two countries went to war.

Tharin was one of a handful of Marine pilots who took a heavy toll on attacking Japanese ships and planes before losing the island. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Hokkaido, Japan, until the war ended four years later.

He served at El Toro first as commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing from October, 1962, to June, 1963, and then returned as commander of Marine Corps Air Bases West from 1964 to 1967.

“Frank was the kind of guy who, when he walked into a room, you didn’t have to be a Marine to know he was very important. It was the way he walked, the way he carried himself,” said Maj. Gen. Donald E.P. Miller, a former commanding general of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing who now is in Washington in charge of plans, policy and operations for the Marine Corps.

Tharin was the commanding general when Miller arrived at El Toro as a young lieutenant in 1958.

“Gen. Tharin was a big part of my life,” Miller said. He said many of Tharin’s mementos are included in a Marine Corps museum at El Toro. “He was an aviator’s aviator. A very distinguished man.”

Born Oct. 23, 1910, in Washington, D.C., Tharin graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1934. After the war, he returned to active duty and graduated from the National War College in 1954.

Tharin served as commanding general of both the eastern and western region Marine Corps air bases, and of all three active-duty Marine aircraft wings--the 1st, based in Iwakuni, Japan; the 2nd, based at Cherry Point, N.C., and the 3rd, at El Toro.

After his retirement in 1970, Tharin was active as a leader in the Boy Scouts of America, the Marine Corps Aviation Assn. and the Golden Eagles, a group of early naval aviators.

Tharin is survived by his wife of 54 years, Betty Gross Tharin; three sons, Frank of Fremont, Felix of Laguna Beach and Michael of Novato, and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday in the chapel at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The family has asked that memorial contributions be made in Tharin’s name to the Alzheimer’s Assn., 420 W. 19th Street, Costa Mesa.