Theothis Collins was born on September 27, 1949, in Neptune, NJ. His home of record is Asbury Park, NJ.
Collins entered the US Marine Corps and attained the rank of Lance Corporal (LCPL). He was assigned to 3rd Platoon Fox Company 2nd Battalion 1st Marines.
Collins was listed as missing in action on August 19, 1968, inside the DMZ.
Synopsis (from the POW Network) as to the circumstances behind being listed as MIA:
Theothis Collins participated in a ground battle at Quang Tri Province and has been listed as missing in action since August 19, 1968.
The following is an excerpt from the Asbury Park Press dated September 19, 2008:
He didn’t make it home
Vietnam: lane Cpl. Theothis Collins of Neptune remains MIA 40 years later
By Charles Webster
He died on a savagely hot August day in Vietnam.
The consensus is that 18-year-old Marine Lane Cpl. Theothis Collins of Neptune was killed in 1968 in a hostile landing zone inside the demilitarized zone after an explosion rocked an already tense mission.
Some people contend the blast was an artillery shell. Others think maybe it was a mortar. The official records state it was a land mine.
But one thing is for certain: Collins continues to be unaccounted for more than 40 years after he was last seen running to the rescue of the crew of a downed Marine helicopter.
His friends from his days at Asbury Park High School say Collins was the kind of guy who came to people’s rescue.
“My boyfriend at the time liked to pay around a little too much in the classroom and he would get me upset, but Theothis always came to my rescue,” classmate Judy Brooks recalled with a smile. “He was my knight in shining armor.”
His Marine buddies say Collins, highly decorated posthumously, brought along that same come-to-your-rescue verve to his time in war-torn Vietnam—a mentality that eventually led to his death when he was just 18 years old.
“He had a total disregard for his own safety. He just got up and started running toward the helicopter,” said John Kociemba, a Marine who served with Collins.
Standout athlete, friend
As a child, Collins played with friends like Kent St. John and took piano lessons.
At Asbury Park High School, Collins belonged to the French club and played track, football and baseball. Before he graduated in June 1967, he was accepted to Louisiana State University and had planned on becoming a surgeon. But first he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and his dreams died with him on a landing zone on a ridge along the Ben Hair River inside the DMZ.
St. John summed up Collins’ life with one word: “Altruistic.”
“He would do anything for anyone,” St. John said as he choked back tears recalling his childhood best friend. He was just the most sociable and caring person that you could ever know,” St. John said. “It was a shock to many of us when we learned that he died.”
St. John, whom many people know as a reporter/anchor for NJN News, recalls talking with Collins at his going-away party before he left for basic training at Parris Island, S.C.
“He didn’t have to go. While the rest of us were trying to figure out ways to get out of the war, he just volunteered. I guess he felt a duty to go. I don’t know, he never offered an explanation,” St. John said.
There was no funeral, but Collins’ family and friends did mourn his loss at a memorial service. There is no grave to pay respects, but his name is etched in the granite walls of the Vietnam memorials in Washington, D.C., and Holmdel, where observances will be held today for the national POW/MIA Recognition Day.
A few years ago, St. John made a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington to find Collins’ name on “The Wall,” as it has come to be known. St. John recalls the emotions that surfaced during the visit and the need to make a rubbing of his childhood friend’s name, as so many others have done.
“I framed it and put it up on my wall at home,” St. John said. “You just don’t forget people like Theothis, so I find myself looking at it almost every night.”
Information from Homer Ragsdale (Veteran), POW Network, Asbury Park Press, and NJVVMF.
12/17/2024
