About George

By Gloria Linda Lewis Collins

George Paul Collins was born on March 3, 1924 in the small town of Berlin, New Jersey. His family moved to Pleasantville and he was raised there by the bay, which he grew to love. George loved fishing and clamming his whole life. His adult life was spent in the United States Air Force until he retired in 1972 after twenty-nine and a half years.
George married his high school sweetheart, Gloria Linda Lewis. The two raised six smart and charming children who now have families of their own. He had a very interesting and eventful life and, after living through the wars he participated in, he learned not to sweat the small stuff. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., at the age of 70.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483699936

Gloria Linda Lewis Collins

George Paul Collins was born on March 3, 1924 in the small town of Berlin, New Jersey. His family moved to Pleasantville and he was raised there by the bay, which he grew to love. George loved fishing and clamming his whole life. His adult life was spent in the United States Air Force until he retired in 1972 after twenty-nine and a half years. George married his high school sweetheart, Gloria Linda Lewis. The two raised six smart and charming children who now have families of their own. He had a very interesting and eventful life and, after living through the wars he participated in, he learned not to sweat the small stuff. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., at the age of 70.

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Copyright © 2013 by Gloria Linda Lewis Collins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 10/07/2013

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Contents

Introduction

Pleasantville, NJ

George And Gloria

WWII

TheWedding

#1#2#3#4

Berlin Air Lift

Eglin & #5#6

Japan

Ft Miles, De

The Farm & Retirement

The Final Years

Epilogue

Tribute to George

Famous George-isms

Don’t sweat the small things

The whole nine yards

I wonder what the poor people are doing

Get off my back

Don’t ask why! Your answer to the command-JUMP!—is how High?

Go kick some butt

I’m not a happy camper

Where are my God Damn glasses?

That’s good enough for government work

Colder than a witches’ tit

This book has been written about SMSgt. George Paul Collins. The story is of a man and his happy family. The story is proof that money is not required for happiness. This book contains the stories compiled by his wife and his children. The military information and his WWII diary synopsis was compiled by his eldest son, Jerry. The Epilogue tribute poem was written by George’s youngest son, Tom.

George was 18 years old. A Coca-Cola drinking, cigarette smoking, teenager who went to war and came back a highly decorated hero after 25 bombing missions over Europe. The war changed many things about George. He came back not only a highly decorated airman but also with a major change in his personality. He was not alone with this change; the same change was seen by millions who fought for our country.

There were many secret flying missions over many years, a fact he kept inside. We believe the atomic missions were the cause of his death. He flew into many of the world’s crises and faced death his whole military career. It did not show and we did not know; but we now understand why nothing bothered him.

Dedication

This book About George is dedicated to my husband, SMSgt. George P. Collins, and to my wonderful children, Jerry, Toby, Reenie, Sandi, Tom, and Linda. They are my inspiration and my support in everything I do. We had a wonderful life together for many years and our children have all turned out to be productive, proud citizens of the United States. We were always proud of our brood.

APPRECIATION

For me to say I wrote this book would be unfair. I wish to give so much thanks to my kids for their unselfish hours and hours on computers.

The military and boating chapters have been done by Jerry. The Tribute composed by Tom. The Learning to drive chapter was composed by Reenie. Tom’s poem will bring a tear to your eyes. Linda was the baby and had a lot of time as George’s fishing mate in his retired years.

I thank my children for being patient with me during this endeavor. These stories will delight you.

INTRODUCTION

There were many times that Gloria wondered if George would return from the many wars and conflicts that he had flown in—World War II, Korea, Berlin Airlift, Cuba, Africa, Japan, Vietnam and many more places in the world. She always wondered why he was so casual and never worried about anything.

He was so carefree and nonchalant about it all. Of course she and the children were a different matter; they were his life outside of his love for flying. Wife, Gloria, worried about everything in life especially when her husband was off on secret missions and he couldn’t tell her where he was going and when he would be back. He was aware of the stress it put on his family as they had no money and were apart for weeks, months, and once for a full year. Even in his final days, he showed no concern about dying.

George was totally relaxed on a boat. He often talked about boating as the last bastion of American freedom. There were no rules, no marine cops, and you could catch whatever and as much as you found. His love of fishing and all aspects of the sea was an important part of his life. He transferred that love to all of us. He actually hallucinated while in his hospital bed that he was fishing—his hands were reeling in a big one.

He was a happy man. Although there was no extra money, somehow they always had enough for whatever was required. It wasn’t until Gloria had lost the love of her life that she discovered information about nuclear missions that he had been flying in. Never a word was uttered to her or his family. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery with his WWII raiders.

1920

Pleasantville, NJ

Across Lake’s Bay in Pleasantville, New Jersey, there was a gentle breeze blowing, rippling the water as George’s father, Gus Collins, went in to dig for clams. He had walked several blocks from his home with his canvas bag which would later hold his daily catch. Clams were plentiful in the 1920’s and Gus knew it would be easy to dig the limit. It was summer, the water warm and the black flies hadn’t started to bite yet. The rowboat he owned was tied up to a pole at the bay’s edge and he rested in it when his legs got tired of digging those delicious shellfish.

As Gus bent over to pull one out from under his big toe, he found it was a very large one, just right if he could get a dozen more. Those were perfect to make clam chowder which the whole Collins clan loved for lunch or dinner. Catching one’s dinner was not only healthy exercise but it helped put food on the table.

All the while, Gus was thinking about his life and his beautiful wife, Ellen. They had married while he was working for the Sperry Rand Corporation in New York. Soon Ellen became pregnant and wanted to move back to Pleasantville, New Jersey, her hometown.

His daydreaming came to a stop when he sunk his foot deep into the gooey mud and he hollered out in pain. He had stepped on a razor clam, a long narrow shellfish that was razor sharp. After rinsing it off, Gus brought up his bleeding foot to take a look; he decided to call it quits for the day. The canvas bag held enough clams for dinner and he had nothing with him to care for his nasty cut toe. His walk back home was painful but he had suffered many razor clam cuts before and when cleaned out properly, they healed very well. Ellen bandaged his throbbing toe when he got home.

Gus’s mind was still troubling him. After the young couple returned to New Jersey, they stayed with his family for a short while. They soon rented a gas station which fortunately had a small apartment above it. Edward was born and all was well with the Collins world for the time being. The gas station turned out to be great! It provided them with income not only from the gas sold, but on the counter was a penny slot machine which paid for their rent each month.

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Gus & Ellen

Since Ellen was a Bell telephone operator, her income made it possible for them to save some money. Thomas Edward was born next and grand mom Ang came to take care of the children when Gus and Ellen were working. The family loved Pleasantville. Many fishermen made their living from the Atlantic Ocean and the bay. The couple also had many friends.

Their last child was born March 3, 1924, George Paul Collins. Ellen had a difficult time bringing this little fellow into this world. Ellen’s mother took care of George and Ellen until she was well enough to be on her feet again.

In 1935, the three Collins lads were growing like weeds making it difficult for Grand mom Ang to control while their parents were at work. If she told them to do something, they would just ignore her.

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Collins Boys

In the beautiful warm days of summer, Ellen would pack a nice lunch and walk to the trolley with the boys in tow. The trolley carried them across the meadows to Atlantic City. The four of them sat under the