Robert Cornelius Collins entered the U.S. Military on October 20, 1942 and began basic training in Forthood Texas. After basic training, Robert served with Headquarters Company 637th Tank Destroyer Battalion. He was ranked as an Army Tech V and worked as a Tec 5 Light Tank Crewman 1736 and a Tec 5 Truck Driver, light 345. He was shipped to the Philippines, and after the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, he served in Japan for 8 months. In these places, he drove 2.5-ton trucks from their company area to Manila in the Philippines, and once stationed in Japan, he drove from their company area to Tokyo. He would conduct daily runs to bring in supplies rations, equipment, and troops, and these runs would be 60-mile trips, taking entire days, as the conditions of the road were horrible.
Robert Collins (right) and an unknown man in their WW2 army uniforms.
Robert Collins (left) and an unknown man on one of the trucks they drove.
According to his family, Robert would never talk about the war, and my mom vividly remembers the only time he spoke about it around her was when they were planning on taking a cruise, and my grandfather said, "I spent enough time on the boat to Japan, I don't want to spend any more time on one."
"I spent enough time on the boat to Japan, I don't want to spend any more time on one."