June 6 marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, as part of the largest seaborne invasion in history.
Oak Park native James Francis Collins was a decorated World War II veteran and a D-Day survivor. His daughter Grace Collins is honoring the 80th anniversary of that fateful day by sharing her late father’s story. Her father enlisted at just 18 in March 1943. He was honorably discharged with the rank of PFC in December 1945.
“It is important to me because my dad is a hero,” said Grace Collins, who now lives in Galewood. “I have a hard time reconciling the joking, loving father with the boy of that day. He did not like to speak of that day. He brushed it off by saying the real heroes died on that beach.”
James Collins was one of 10 children. He and three of his older brothers enlisted during World War II and they all returned home safely after serving in the military. As a child, he attended Ascension School in Oak Park and then went to Fenwick High School. Collins left halfway through his senior year when he enlisted.
“He knew he had a responsibility to his country and to what was right,” Grace Collins said.
On D-Day, Collins was part of the fourth wave of soldiers to storm Omaha Beach, one of the five landing areas along the 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast.
Throughout his life, Collins never discussed the details of D-Day with his family. However, that changed in 1998 when he decided to open up about it. He was 74. His niece’s 18-year-old son had just announced that he was joining the U.S. Marines, and because his niece and her husband wanted to better understand what their son was getting into, they turned to Collins for insight about his years in the military. For the first time, he told his family all about what he had experienced on June 6, 1944.
Collins, his daughter said, told his family that after his boat landed on Omaha Beach, all he could do was run a few yards because the machine gun fire from the top of the cliffs was so intense. He was then able to climb into a fox hole that had been dug by another solider from a previous wave. In order to enter the fox hole, he had to pull a deceased soldier out so he could get in. Once the gunfire weakened, he was able to advance farther up the beach and reunite with his squad.
“What he went through was just so frightening and he was only 19 years old,” Grace Collins said.
Collins told his family that the bravest men he saw that day were Navy signalmen who stood with their backs to the machine gun fire. He said they held flags and guided landing crafts so they could maneuver and avoid underwater stanchions. Collins told his family that when a signalman was killed, another one would pick up the flags and take over. In Collins’ eyes, those men were the most selfless that day.
After he was discharged in December 1945, Collins returned to Oak Park and started working at Burt’s Shoes on Lake Street. Soon after, he began dating a fellow Oak Park native named Patricia Gale, who also worked on Lake Street, at The Fair Store. Collins had been just two years older than Gale when they were kids at Ascension School. The two married, moved to Charlotte N.C. and had eight children. Although they moved to the south, the family regularly came back to the Oak Park area for family reunions. Collins, who died at 76, spent his career selling textiles. For fun, he coached youth football.
“He was such a natural coach,” Grace Collins said. “He could teach any kid how to play football.”
She added that although her father rarely spoke about being a veteran, he was a very patriotic man who loved the Fourth of July.
“He carried a pocket-sized version of the Constitution with him at all times,” she said. “The Constitution was very important to him.”
Grace Collins also recalled the answer her dad gave her when she would ask him about their family’s heritage as a kid.
“When I’d ask ‘What are we? Are we Irish?’
“‘No,’” he would say, “‘you’re American.’”