Lightning Joe An Autobiography Author:J. Lawton Collins General Collins nickname, "Lightning Joe" came from an enlisted soldier on Guadalcanal who, responding to the 25th Division Commander Collins' presence at the front remarked, "By God, there is J. Lightning himself" -- Lightning was the telephone code call for Division headquarters; soon "J. Lightning"... more » had, over the soldier's grapevine, changed to "Lightning Joe" and the nickname stuck to Collins thereafter. From Command of the 25th Division in the Pacific, Collins was chosen to Command VII Corp in the Normandy Invasion and the drive through Germany. It was Collins, among others, who planned and executed Operation Cobra, which led to the Falaise Pocket trapping of thousands of German soldiers and the loss of Normandy for the Germans. In 1949 Collins was named U.S. Army Chief of Staff and elevated to four stars.« less