Local veteran recalls encounter with Queen Elizabeth II

Sep. 13—Danny Collins' fellow soldiers told him not to linger around the mess hall when he finished eating on Saturdays.

Collins, against his peers' advice, lingered for a moment too long. And he was put to work.

This was in 1959 at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, he recalled.

He was told by a first sergeant to go put on his class A uniform and pack a bag with a couple of days clothing and supplies.

He then had an impromptu driver's test to become a military chauffer. He drove around the block in a '57 Chevy and his superiors stamped his driver's license as qualified.

The next thing he knew he was picking up a lieutenant colonel and captain.

"We're going north," Collins said. "They are giving me directions and we get almost to our location and they asked 'do you even know where we are going?'"

Collins, who had been nervously driving for nearly six hours, did not know where he was taking the men.

"We are giving a 21 gun salute to Queen Elizabeth II," they told him.

The Queen arrived in upstate New York in 1959 on the Royal Yacht Britannia and met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The two leaders then went to St. Lambert, Quebec to officially open the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

The seaway was built to allow travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and was named after the Saint Lawrence River, which originates in Canada.

Collins never expected to see the queen when he got caught lingering in the mess hall.

His hands shake now, some of the details are foggy, but he keeps the photos the captain took of the queen and tells the story with the eagerness of a young man.

His peers didn't believe him when he returned to Fort Devens and told them where he had been.

"Normally for something like that they pick a sergeant or a corporal," Collins said. "I was only a Private First Class. Why did they pick me?"

Collins was born and raised in Logansport. He left school in 10th grade and joined the military where he eventually served in artillery. He spent time in Korea, Japan and Germany during his service.

His time in the military ran from 1956-1963.

"About seven years," Collins said. "Well, six years, 10 months and three days."

He intended to go for 20 years but soldiers were beginning to be sent to Vietnam. And he had met a girl while on leave. He came back to Logansport and married his wife Judith. They have been married for 58 years.

He worked in Logansport for companies such as Nelson Screw Products, Logan Machine and Leo Brown Construction.

He loved playing the lottery as well. And the lottery apparently loved him back. Collins won $120,000 on the old "Hoosier Millionaire" television show and just a couple of years ago won another $100,000 on a scratch off ticket.

He loved his time in the military. It was a great experience for a 17-year-old, he said. He credited his training for helping him through some difficult challenges getting started in Logansport post military career.

Now, with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, he calls the experience one of the greatest thrills he's had.

"I thought it was great being a little peon from Logansport, Indiana," he said. "I was in the big time, seeing the queen."