About James Lawton Collins Jr.
James Lawton Collins Jr. (5 November 1917 – 6 May 2002) was a brigadier general in the U.S. Army who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, a military historian, and a viticulturist. He was the son of Major General James Lawton Collins, nephew of General J. Lawton Collins, who served as Chief of Staff of the Army during the Korean War, and older brother of Apollo 11 astronaut Major General Michael Collins. He led a North Dakota National Guard artillery battalion in Normandy in 1944, and served as the U.S. Army Chief of Military History from 1970 to 1982. == Early life == James Lawton Collins Jr. was born in El Paso, Texas, on 5 November 1917, to James Lawton Collins (1882–1963), a U.S. Army officer, and his wife Virginia C. Collins (née Stewart; 1895–1986). He had two younger sisters, Virginia and Agnes, and a younger brother, Michael (1930–2021). Joseph Lawton Collins (1896–1987), who served as Chief of Staff of the Army during the Korean War, was his uncle. On 1 July 1935, Collins entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where his father was a graduate of the Class of 1907. Collins graduated 51st out of 456 in the Class of 1939 on 12 June 1939, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.
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