<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Tom-Collier-then.jpg"><img class="alignright  wp-image-48496" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Tom-Collier-then.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="268"></a>Beaufort’s J. Tom Collier, 101, enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1940 in Eastover, S.C. He served in World War II in the Pacific, escaping from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines in a homemade raft and ending up in Australia.

Collier also served in Korea, making the landings at Inchon on Sept. 15, 1950 and fighting at the Chosin Reservoir. Later he was a Drill Instructor at Parris Island and a recruiter. He retired in 1964 as a Sergeant Major.

– Compiled by John Chubb, American Legion Post 9.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

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