Long Beach soldier killed in Iraq

By Press-Telegram staff reports

A soldier who listed his hometown as Long Beach has died from injuries he sustained in the Iraq war, the Department of Defense has reported.

Sgt. First Class Randy Duane Collins, 36, died Tuesday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., according to a statement from the DOD.

Collins was injured in Mosul May 4 during a mortar attack. Collins was assigned to the Army's 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Irwin.

Further details were unavailable at press time.

Copyright © 2005 Los Angeles Newspaper Group

Long Beach Press Telegram

Long Beach resident wounded in Mosul

Sgt. Randy Collins, 36, was a Millikan grad, career Army man

By Karen Robes

Staff Writer

Monday, May 30, 2005 - LAKEWOOD - Margarette Miller pressed her hand against her chest Monday, a picture of her son, U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Randy Collins, imprinted on her T-shirt. She smiled, remembering how she nagged him about wanting a picture of him in his dress uniform.

"I wanted a picture of all his medals," the Long Beach resident said. "I said, 'I'll never ask you for another picture." And he knew I meant that, so he went right home and put on the uniform and took it."

But the moment gave her pause.

"This is all I have," she said, quickly trying to recover.

As she gathered with family at Mayfair Park in the park her son loved as a child she wept for Randy, who was fatally injured May 4 during a mortar attack in Mosul, Iraq. The 36-year-old soldier died May 17 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

"He won't be back no more," his mother said sobbing. "We waited for him to come back for Christmas and New Year's because he'd been gone for 17 years. All his adult life he had been away in the service and we'd be waiting for Christmas to come because he would be coming home.

"We'd be saying, 'Randy's coming home. Randy's coming home. Randy's coming home." But he won't be coming home no more."

Even before he moved to Long Beach when he was 7, Randy always wanted to go into the Army, his family said.

Born the sixth of nine children on Oct. 7, 1968 in Hayti, Mo., Randy and his sibling moved here on June 9, 1976, after his mother met a man while on an evangelist missionary tour and remarried.

Randy attended Mark Twain Elementary and Bancroft Junior High schools, where he excelled in track and cross country. At Millikan High School, he joined the JROTC program.

After he graduated in 1987, he joined the Army Reserves. But after completing boot camp, he couldn't find a civilian job, so he went into active duty.

His first assignment was in Seoul, Korea, where he stayed for a year. During his 17 years in the Army, he was stationed in Monterey, then at Fort Drum in New York and sent to Germany, Kosovo and Kuwait before coming to Fort Irwin, where he was assigned to the Army's 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. He was even sent to Los Angeles to protect the city during the 1992 riots.

He met Roxanne, who worked at Fort Irwin. They married in February 2004 in a civil service and were planning to remarry in a formal ceremony with family and friends in December. She was in the midst of picking a wedding dress.

Randy was deployed to Iraq the Monday after New Year's Day. He had been stationed at Saddam Hussein's Palace, and his duties included training Iraqis.

On May 4, Randy said goodnight to a buddy before leaving a mess hall in Mosul. He was walking across a field when bombs started falling.

"He heard them so he started running," his older brother, Moses Collins said. "So he ran close to the bunker and jumped into the bunker, but the mortar hit the barrier that was by the bunker and ricocheted off the barrier into the bunker where he was. That's how he got hurt."

The family heard through Roxanne.

"Her commander came to her and told her he had been seriously injured. They were doing all they could, and that was the only information we had for a whole week," Moses said.

They did not find out the severity of his condition until he was transported to Germany. From the hospital, Roxanne told the family about the leg fracture and injuries to the head, shoulders.

On Memorial Day, a day they said will forever take on a different meaning, the family said it was fitting to celebrate his life at Mayfair Park.

"If he was home, he would be here today," said his younger sister, Teresa Collins Hodge. "He loved outings, loved being with his family."

Services will take place at 11 a.m. June 4 at new Hope Baptist Church, 1160 New York Ave. in Long Beach.