![Jim Collins 1.jpg](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=150%2C279&order=crop%2Cresize 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=200%2C372&order=crop%2Cresize 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=225%2C419&order=crop%2Cresize 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=300%2C558&order=crop%2Cresize 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=400%2C745&order=crop%2Cresize 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=540%2C1005&order=crop%2Cresize 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=640%2C1191&order=crop%2Cresize 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=750%2C1396&order=crop%2Cresize 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/mtstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/3e/a3e706a4-8c85-5370-af87-81cd4f096fa5/6668923c63c80.image.jpg?crop=975%2C1815%2C0%2C125&resize=975%2C1815&order=crop%2Cresize 990w)
Jim Collins
In a few weeks, Jim Collins will travel from Butte, Montana, to Morehead, Kentucky, to meet up with 60 beloved friends — long-serving Ranger and Airborne military vets like himself who served together during two tours in Ginza, Italy, for a total of five years. The conversation will more than likely turn to their personal experiences that are difficult for nonmilitary friends and relatives to comprehend.
There are many more friends scattered across the country who served with him in Kuwait (three times), Bosnia, Italy (twice), Kosovo, Iraq and Oman. He served as an airborne division instructor for three years at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and coordinated efforts as the leader of the Rear Operations Center in most of the aforementioned countries. For seven years, he was a weapons and nuclear biological chemical specialist in the special forces. He was trained in advanced combat tactics.
He said he still stays in touch via text and calls with most of his fellow soldiers.
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“We’re a close group,” Collins said. “In the military, you’re with most units two to three years before transferring to another. Usually, with special operations forces, because you’re more highly trained, it’s typically a smaller community and you stay a little longer in a location, so you really get to know everyone really well.”
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Jim Collins
Collins said what he misses the most since retiring two years ago — after nearly 30 years in the military — is the camaraderie, teamwork and trust he experienced during training and service.
“At times it’s difficult not to be surrounded by that,” he said, “but my dad served for 21 years and I was a military brat, so moving around, adjusting to new situations and making new friends is second nature to me. While I do miss my buddies, we text and call each other quite often, especially on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. And — I love discussing war movies with them.”
Collins, who spent a good portion of childhood in the Butte outdoors riding horses and performing in rodeos, has found work that centers around his military training. He currently teaches elective and continuing education classes in survival training, search and rescue and land navigation at Montana Tech. He is also a Red Cross instructor and works for the Federal Protective Service, where his job is to coordinate protection for government facilities and safeguard the employees and visitors who pass through them every day. He’s also a member of two Montana SAR teams that help locate lost hunters, hikers, and injured individuals, or retrieve bodies.
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Jim Collins
The father of seven, he is the first to admit that it’s different teaching people who are not part of the military. He begins each term by showing the students a special operations forces military training video he helped develop. “I tell them, ‘This is the stuff I used to do.’ And then, suddenly, I have their attention,” he said.
Students in his classes learn how to navigate with a compass and GPS system, build a fire with flint and cotton balls, translate terrain association, signal for help, administer first aid, build a shelter in the wild, and rescue and evacuate a victim. Students also learn to only pack items for wilderness trips that have more than one purpose.
“These are all things you learn when you’re a soldier, but in the military, obviously, it’s a little more intense,” he said. “Overall, the one thing I like to tell people about my military experience is that it gave me the confidence to do so many things in my life.”