The following is an edited excerpt of the life narrative that will be read during the 2024 Gold Star Hall Ceremony.
Max Collins
As a child, Max Harvey Collins was fascinated with airplanes and always wanted to fly. He loved model airplanes and ordered a balsa wood kit through the Sears catalog, which he meticulously built, carefully cutting and gluing the many intricate pieces together.
Once the plane was built, Collins climbed to the top of the family's grain silo – in rural Story County – and launched the model, hoping for a smooth flight. Unfortunately, after all his hard work, the model plane crashed to the ground and broke into several little pieces.
This love for flying eventually led Collins to pursue a degree in aeronautical engineering at Iowa State University. After completing two years at Iowa State, he enlisted in the Air Force. Collins stood second in his class when he graduated from the School of Photography at Lowry Air Base in Denver, Colorado. He went on to receive further training at O'Hare Air Base in Park Ridge, Illinois, before he was sent to Greenville, Mississippi, to begin his flight education.
While in Mississippi, he learned to fly the T6 trainer and the T28 trainer. After his time in Mississippi, Collins was sent to Laredo, Texas. There, he was the first in his class to solo with the T33. To mark this accomplishment, his family attended the ceremony to cheer him on at graduation when he received his silver pilot wings and was commissioned second lieutenant with distinguished honors.
After his graduation, Collins was sent to Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas for air-to-air combat training and then to Japan before leaving for Korea. In Japan, he underwent a special two-week survival training program and was the only soldier in his training groups to remain hidden throughout the training exercise.
In Korea, Collins was stationed at Camp 13 in Suwon. While there, he successfully completed three separate missions. In between missions, Collins would play cards with other service members, hand out candy to local children and take pictures to send to his family back home. Collins's Commanding Colonel described him as, "a very hard worker and a perfectionist…He was quite handy with tools…and he took a great pride in improving his and his roommates' quarters."
Final mission
On May 4, 1953, Collins was preparing for his fourth combat mission when his plane crashed during takeoff and he was killed. Collins died just three months before an armistice ended the conflict.
Second Lt. Collins was 24 years old at the time of the crash and is remembered by his family as a kindhearted and caring soul. After his passing, Collins was awarded the Korean Service Medal, United Nations and National Defense Service Medals, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Prior to the end of the Truman Administration in January 1953, plans to reunite North and South Korea were abandoned and limited goals were pursued to avoid the escalation of the conflict. Acting on a campaign pledge, incoming President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower went to Korea in 1952.
President Eisenhower sought an end to hostilities in Korea through a combination of diplomacy and military muscle-flexing. On July 27, 1953, seven months after President Eisenhower's inauguration as the 34th President of the United States, an armistice was signed, ending organized combat operations and leaving the Korean Peninsula divided at the 38th parallel - much as it had been since the close of World War II.
The United Nation's actions prevented North Korea from imposing its communist rule on South Korea. And the United States' actions in Korea demonstrated America's willingness to combat aggression and strengthened President Eisenhower's hand in Europe as he sought to organize European military defense under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
