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Collins was born in Louisiana. He graduated from West Point in 1917 but saw no combat in the First World War. Between the wars, he attended most of the Army’s command training schools, including the Infantry School (where he later served as an instructor), the Command and General Staff School, the Army Industrial College, and the Army War College (where he also served as an instructor.) He also served a tour in the Philippines.
Blessed with "quick wits and a steely will" (Perret 1991), Collins was one of the best Army tacticians. He had helped develop the triangular division concept and had revised the Army’s close order drills. He was a Marshall protégé and one of the best field commanders in the war.
Collins was the chief of staff of the VII Corps in
Alabama at
the
outbreak of war. Made chief of staff of the Hawaiian
Department immediately after the attack on Pearl
Harbor, he was subsequently promoted to brigadier general in
February 1942
and to major general in May 1942. He commanded 25
Division in the Guadalcanal
and New Georgia
campaigns. Here he received his nickname, "Lightning Joe," from
the
telephone code for his headquarters, "Lightning," and his driving
command style. Collins refused hospitalization
for malaria during the
Quadalcanal campaign, and this resurfaced at New Georgia, where he
also suffered from gastoenteritis.
MacArthur
considered Collins too young for the three stars of a corps
commander,
but Marshall was
able to
persuade Eisenhower to give Collins command of VII Corps for the
Normandy invasion, and he was transferred to Europe
in March 1944. He distinguished himself there as a corps
commander, and
the German generals later
identified him as one of the two best
American corps commanders they faced. This opinion has been
largely shared by historians (e.g. Taaffe 2011). His command style
combined aggressiveness with tactical finesse, flexibility,
emphasis on good intelligence,
and close supervision of his subordinates, towards whom he was
ruthless if they failed.
Collins was chief of staff of the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict and served as a special representative to Vietnam before his retirement in 1956.
| 1896-5-1 |
Born in Algiers,
Louisiana |
|
| 1917-4
|
Second
lieutenant |
Graduates from Military
Academy,
standing 35th in a class of 139, and is assigned to 22
Regiment. |
| 1917-5 |
First lieutenant |
|
| 1917 |
Student, Infantry School of
Arms |
|
| 1918-6 |
Captain |
|
| 1919 |
Commander, 3 Battalion, 22
Infantry Regiment |
|
| 1920 |
Assistant chief of staff,
G-3,
American Forces in Germany |
|
| 1921 |
Instructor, Department of
Chemistry, West Point |
|
| 1925 |
Company officers course, Fort
Benning |
|
| 1926 |
Field Artillery School, Fort
Sill |
|
| 1927 |
Instructor, Infantry School |
|
| 1932-8 |
Major |
|
| 1933 |
Executive officer, 23
Brigade, Manila |
|
| 1936 |
Army Industrial College |
|
| 1937 |
Army War College |
|
| 1938 |
Instructor, Army War College |
|
| 1940-6 |
Lieutenant
colonel |
Chief of staff, VII Corps |
| 1941-1 |
Colonel |
|
| 1941-12-17
|
Chief of staff, Hawaiian
Department |
|
| 1942-2-14 |
Brigadier general |
|
| 1942-5 |
Major general |
Commander, 25
Division |
| 1944-1-19 |
Commander, VII Corps, Europe |
|
| 1945-4-15 |
Lieutenant
general |
|
| 1945-9 |
Chief of staff, Army Ground
Forces |
|
| 1945-12 |
Chief of Information, U.S.
Army |
|
| 1947-9-1 |
Deputy chief of staff, U.S.
Army |
|
| 1948 |
General |
|
| 1949-8-16 |
Chief of staff, U.S. Army |
|
| 1953 |
U.S. representative, Standing
Group, NATO |
|
| 1954-10-30 |
Special representative,
Vietnam |
|
| 1956-3 |
Retires |
|
| 1987-9-12 |
Dies at Washington, D.C. |
References
Arlington National Cemetary Website (accessed 2008-2-9)
The Pacific War Online
Encyclopedia © 2007-2008, 2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index
