General Joseph Lawton Collins (1 May 1896 – 12 September 1987) was a senior United States Army officer.

During World War II, he served in both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operations, one of a few senior American commanders to do so.

Another nephew, Michael Collins, was the command module pilot on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 that put the first two men on the Moon and retired from the United States Air Force as a major general.

[4] Selected as an alternate by Representative H. Garland Dupré, Collins received the appointment after the first choice failed to qualify.

He attended the United States Army Infantry School of Arms at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,[7] and served with the regiment at various locations between 1917 and 1919.

He was promoted to captain in June 1918, and to temporary major in September, and took command of the 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment the following month.

[15][16] By the time the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Collins had been a temporary colonel since January.

[17] Collins was chief of staff of the Hawaiian Department from 1941 to 1942 and served as the Commanding General of the 25th Infantry Division—nicknamed the "Tropic Lightning" Division—on Oahu and in operations against the Japanese on Guadalcanal between 1942 and 1943 and on New Georgia from July to October 1943.

[16] It was also during this campaign that saw Collins awarded with the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Silver Star, the citation for which reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress 9 July 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Major General Joseph Lawton Collins (ASN: 0-2274/0-5247), United States Army, for gallantry in action against the enemy while serving as Commanding General, 25th Infantry Division, in action on 11 January 1943 at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

Upon arriving on Hill 52, to gain better points of observation, he voluntarily exposed himself to intermittent rifle, machine gun and mortar fire, without regard for his own personal safety.

[20]Collins was later transferred to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), where he commanded the VII Corps in the Allied invasion of Normandy and on the Western Front through to the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945.

Collins was chosen by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, who had served with Collins at the Army Infantry School before the war and was then commanding the First Army in England, as a replacement for Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff, the original commander of VII Corps and one of Bradley's West Point classmates.

VII Corps is perhaps best known for the leading role it played in Operation Cobra; less well known is Collins' contribution to that plan.

Bradley commented that "Had we created another ETO Army, despite his youth and lack of seniority, Collins certainly would have been named the commander."

[27] After the war, Collins was deputy commanding general and chief of staff of Army Ground Forces from August to December 1945.

[28] As a wartime chief of staff his primary responsibility was to ensure that adequately trained and equipped soldiers were sent to fight in Korea.

He was special representative of the United States in Vietnam with ambassadorial rank, 1954 to 1955, and returned to his NATO assignment.