US Army General. He was one of the few Army generals who served in both the Pacific and European Theaters during World War II. Born of Irish Catholic heritage, he graduated from the US Military Academy in 1917 and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant and assigned to the 22nd Infantry in April 1917. He then attended the Infantry School of Arms at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and served with his regiment at various locations. In June 1918 he was promoted to the permanent rank of captain and to temporary major three months later. In 1919 he was sent to France where he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, and was then became assistant chief of staff of American Forces in Germany from 1920 until 1921. After returning to the US, he became an instructor in the Department of Chemistry at West Point until 1925. From 1927 until 1931 he served as an instructor in weapons and tactics at the US Army Infantry School. In August 1932 he was promoted to the rank of major and was assigned duty as executive officer of the 23rd Brigade, Manila, Philippines, and assistant chief of staff, Philippine Division, from 1933 until 1934. In 1937 he graduated from the Army Industrial College (now Industrial College of the Armed Forces) and from the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania in 1938, and remained there as an instructor until 1940. In June 1940 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and to the temporary rank of colonel in January 1941 and became the Chief of Staff of the Hawaiian Department, when the US entered World War II in December 1941. In May 1942 he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general and the following May, to the temporary rank of major general, and became commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division, known as the "Tropic Lightning" Division", in operations against the Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater on Guadalcanal from 1942 to 1943 and on New Georgia from July to October 1943. In 1944 he was transferred to the European Theater and commanded the US Army 7th Corps in the D-Day Normandy invasion of France and in the Western European campaigns to the German surrender. In April 1945 he was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general and the following June to permanent rank of brigadier general. From August until December 1945, he served as deputy commanding general and chief of staff of US Army Ground Forces and became the Director of Information (later Chief of Public Information) of the US Army until 1947, and then was Deputy (later Vice) Chief of Staff of the US Army, from 1947 to 1949, all at Washington DC, was promoted to the rank of temporary general and permanent major general in January 1948. From August 1949 until August 1953, he served as Chief of Staff of the US Army in Washington DC and was the Army's senior officer throughout the Korean War. During this time, he directed the Army's operation of the railroads, brought the first Special Forces group into the order of battle, and was closely associated with the development of the Army's contribution to the newly established North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In August 1953 he served as the US representative to the Military Committee and the Standing Group of NATO until 1954, when he was the US special representative in Vietnam with ambassadorial rank until 1955, when he returned to his NATO assignment, and retired in that position in March 1956, 39 years of continuous military service. His military decorations and awards include Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the World War I Victory Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with five service stars), the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with 10 service stars), the Army of Occupation Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. In 1979 he published his memoirs "Lightning Joe: An Autobiography." He died at the age of 91. He was the brother of US Army Major General James Lawton Collins and uncle of Michael Collins, was the command module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 that put the first two men on the Moon and who would later retire as a brigadier general from the Air Force.