Published April 13, 2006
Pickens Soldier dies in Iraqi War

By Jeff Warren
Soldier David Samuel Collins of Pickens County was killed Palm Sunday morning in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. Collins, a specialist with the 101st Airborne Division, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat team, was on patrol with his unit when an improvised explosive device, a roadside bomb, took his life.
Based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Collins was fulfilling his second term of enlistment with the Army. In two enlistments, he went twice to Iraq. Collins completed a year-long tour of duty in Iraq from February 2003 to February 2004 and returned safely to the United States. He went back to Iraq for a second tour this past November.
Collins grew up in Pickens County and graduated from Pickens High School. His grandmother, Ann Collins, said David "liked to get outside and do things." He loved hunting, she said, especially deer hunting, a pursuit he enjoyed with his father and grandfather.
"He was a great kid," David's step-mom, Tammy Collins, said. "He was just a typical boy. He was your average boy."
The oldest of three siblings, David assumed some of the steady responsibility of a firstborn son, Tammy Collins said. "He always loved his family and never failed to tell you," she said. When Collins communicated from Iraq, that love was always part of the message.
"He believed that was why he was there, so his family could be safe," Tammy Collins said.
A wife and family survive the fallen warrior. Collins' wife, Mara, was in Kentucky at Fort Campbell when the Army brought word of her husband's death. The couple's children, Elizabeth (age two) and James (six months), were in Pickens County, visiting in the home of their grandmother, Lynn Dean, when the Army brought word here to Dean.
Both Collins' widow and his mother received notification of his death from Army officials around the same time in the afternoon-evening of Sunday, April 9.
Originally from Maine, Mara Collins met David in the Army when she also was a soldier. Mara Collins and her mother will soon join David's family here. It is expected to be four days before Collins' remains arrive home to Pickens County.
As a man who loved his home and family, Collins lived out a devotion to his country and the service branch he fought under. "He loved it," Tammy Collins said. "He believed in what he was doing."
"He died doing what he wanted to do," said Cheryl Dean, a family friend. "He was so Army minded, and he wanted to make a difference. But we lost a good one. We lost a good one."
David Collins' mother is Lynn Dean. His father and stepmother are Sammy and Tammy Collins. His grandparents are Jack and Ann Collins. All are residents of Pickens County.