Donald M. Collins Sergeant, USAAF, `World War II 12th Fighter Squadron'

Don Collins has been a registered member of 18FWA since February 1996. He lives with his wife, Mary, in Jonesboro, Georgia, where he is a professional Aviation Artist-Illustrator.

His young adult career began as a P-38 Crew Chief  early in WWII, with  the 12th Fighter Squadron, leap-­frogging from island to barren island en-route to victory over Japan.  Don’s artistic talents were promptly recognized and he was soon spending as much time doing original Nose-Art as he was in main­taining the big twin-engined P-38s.

Collins returned to the ‘States and left the Army Air Corps as a Sergeant in January 1946, then earned his formal Art training in college, stead­ily improving profession­ally, expand­ing his horizons to include oil portraiture, movie anima­tion, sculpture ... and best of all, aviation maga­zine and book illustra­tion.  He  holds a Pilots rating and flew his own private airplane for many years ... until the FAA Medical Exams forced him to spend more time drawing airplanes than flying them.

He brought samples of his aerial paintings to 18FWA reunions, and offered to do personalized aerial views - to order - of  F-51 Mustangs (or prefer­red air­craft) with individ­ual’s own Squadron markings, with  specified name and nose-art on its side ... an authentic, professional oil painting keepsake that member’s family would treasure forever.  If so desired, he offered to place a bust portrait of individuals “in those olden days...”  from one of buyer’s appropriate photos.

The Collins cartoons shown, are just a few small-scale examples of what we can expect from Don’s drawing board in the future.  He admits, however, that he’s been away from the day-to-day routine of Air Force life for many years, and solicited our  readers to send him descriptions of humorous war-time incidents they  recall, for which he would ensure due credit and a sketch to those who submitted ideas which he used.

We have not become privy to the youthful shenanigans of our subject as he grew up, but judging from what we have seen and learned about him as a “Mature Adult”, we would have to guess that the decorative graffiti which he displayed around his neighborhood, would by now have become quite valuable .. ‘Objects ‘d Art’ – if his early efforts could only have been preserved.

Born in early 1925, Don grew to early manhood during the Great Depression until, when his country needed help in WWII, he joined the Army Air Corps and became a Crew Chief on P-38s, P-39s, P-40s, or what­ever flying machines his early 12th Fighter Squadron was using in the Pacific to fight the Japanese at the time.  Whenever he was not busily engaged repairing  battle  damaged  aircraft,  he was applying his natural artistic talents to the various insignia and nose-art on the squadron’s planes.

It wasn’t until after the war was over, that he was able to return to college for the for­mal Art training that would lead him to be­come a suc­ces­sful profes­sional illustrator and  portrait  artist.  During this same era he managed to satisfy a yearning left unfulfill­ed since the war, when he’d been unable to become a pilot.  He learned to fly in the mid-fifties, and soon purchased his own little plane... the first of many.

“I soloed in a 45hp J2 Cub, then built time in a 65hp J3 until I could purchase a side-by-side J4, in which I flew all over New York state at the astounding speed of 85 mph (with a headwind, the cars on the ground would be passing me!)  Then I got a 125 hp Piper Tri-Pacer, which cruised at about 105 mph; next a Piper Super-Cruiser PA12 which cruised solo at about 115 mph.  I finally purchased a 150 hp Tri-Pacer which I cruised mostly over the North­east at 120 to 130 mph.  “Although I checked out in most light planes of the era, that 150 hp Tri-Pacer was by far my favorite”  We in 18FWA were extremely fortunate when Don Collins volunteered to assist not only our newsletter efforts with volumes of excellent nostalgia-generating cartoons, but soon produced the 18FWA insignia decal and designed several fine improve­ments for the masthead of  ‘Status Report’.

Don’s life-long love of flying becomes immed­iately apparent when you look at any of his work, whether it be oil paintings or cartoons .. he knows his subjects, and enjoys his work.  But like so many aging ‘ancient airmen’, Don’s physical limitations finally forced him to do his fly­ing vicariously ... only through his brushes and pens ... no longer enjoying the aerial beauty from the tops of the clouds.  But Collins approached the traumatic decision   with typical good humor ... as eviden­ced by a set of descriptive  cartoon drawings which he used to report the  major personal loss of his flying permit to his friends.

( Many of 18FWA’s  aging aeronauts  have spiraled down the same slippery  slope,  Don,  but few have accept­­ed it more gracefully than Don Collins did.  --  Bud B.)

Collins has been rendering images of aircraft .. of all eras, vintages and nationalities for so long that he is able to instantly spot an out of place accessory or, as I recall a specific instance.. a time in which I casually commented, that because of my long hours spent flying close formation in F-51s, ‘felt that the perspective of a pair of close Mustangs appeared to me to be “off”, and the two would be actually con­ver­ging, and could possibly collide unless a slight adjustment  of bank or azimuth was made.  The return mail brought me a packet of  ten or twelve pages of perspective drawings, even including view-foils to lay one upon the other for depth, show­­ing views from var­ious angles ... all of which proved the artist to have been correct in his quartering tail view of the pair of Mustangs.

In another of his recent letters, he  recalled a period during WW-II when the Colonel told his crews to remove all camouflage paint from his P-400 in order to reduce weight, and make a faster airplane.  Then, on it’s next combat mission it came back all shot up, tattered and torn ... and they had to start the repairs all over again.

Collins didn’t just write about their sequence of activities to carry out the order to clean up the P-400, but in­cluded a full set of original, half page, water color sketches to fully illustrate his story.

With the great volume of his highly-precise art work, Don’s eyes began to bother him, and coupled with his ‘maturing’ years, his eyeglass lenses kept getting thicker and thicker, and even when using a powerful magnifying glass, he found his professional work becoming more and more difficult.

Finally, during 2001 he decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and try a still-risky, major eye surgery in hopes of correcting his failing vision.  To the delight of all who knew him, and who appreciated his artistic work, Don Collins’ operation was a complete success; his visual acuity – without glasses - returned to an amazing 20/25, and his reading glasses were discarded except for an occasional surreptitious view­ing of TV’s comely dancing girls.