Ep. 18. Chad Collins; author of Run To The Fire: The True Story of Vietnam vet Rick Collins

We have a very special guest today. He is the author of the amazing book Run To The Fire; The True Story of Rick Collins. Run To The Fire is the exhilarating true story of the incredible life of Rick Collins.  

The book’s foreword was graciously written by Vietnam Vet and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. 

Rick Collins, a Vietnam Veteran whose body was maimed by battle, returned home to extreme tragedy and loss. An unlikely superhero, he blazed a standard of endurance, faithfulness, and sacrifice to be emulated. Living an intentional path of extraordinary purpose, Rick rescued those in need, fought for the voiceless, served his community faithfully, and changed the world around him, blazing a legacy for generations to come. Rick’s story will inspire you and challenge you to be the type of person that, when faced with impossible odds, will run to the fire. 

My guest today is college fraternity brother, business mogul, the CEO of Corganics, and Run To The Fire author, Chad Collins. It is a tremendous honor to have you on the show with me today sir. How are you doing, Chad, and what keeps you busy these days? How’s your family? 

 Amazon.com: Run To The Fire: 9781956267860: Collins, Chad, Staubach, Roger: Books

Run To The Fire

Transcript

Welcome man. Thank you for joining us today on the heroes and icons podcast. I'm your host, Greg Randolph. Please find me on the X at Greg hero's icons, as well as my new website heroes and icons podcast.com to get updates for great shows like this and others. I'm also a featured podcaster on Houston city. 

beat.com. That's a cool website for happenings and local businesses. In the Houston area, please check them out as well. If you're enjoying the show, please. It would help me out a whole lot. If you would please share it with a friend. Thank you in advance for doing that. We have a very special guest today. 

He is the author of the amazing book run to the fire. The true story of Rick Collins.  .

The book's foreword was graciously written by Vietnam vet and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, Rick Collins, a Vietnam veteran whose body was maimed by battle, returned home to extreme tragedy and loss. An unlikely superhero, he blazed a standard of endurance, faithfulness, and sacrifice to be emulated.

Living an intentional path of extraordinary purpose, Rick rescued those in need, fought for the voiceless, served his community faithfully and changed the world around him, blazing a legacy for generations to come. Rick's story will inspire you and challenge you to be the type of person that when faced with impossible odds will run to the fire.

My guest today is college fraternity brother, business mogul, the CEO of Corganics and run to the fire author, Chad Collins. A tremendous honor to have you on the show with me, Chad. How are you doing today? What's keeping you busy and how's the family doing? Thanks, Greg. Really appreciate being on. It's always good to be with a fellow brother Fiji and then also a Red Raider.

Things are great in our Collins household. Lots going on with my family. So that keeps us busy along with my organization. We stay really busy in the Collins household. That's for sure.  That's great to hear. And, , you have a couple of kids that are, they're at tech now.

Is that a Texas tech? Is that correct? Yeah, I've had one, my oldest just graduated with his MBA from Texas Tech. He actually got his undergrad at the University of Tulsa. He was a football player and finance major there and then got his MBA at Texas Tech. His younger brother my middle child chief is at Texas Tech right now.

So he's starting his senior year. He's also a Red Raider football player. So it's a lot of fun going to, to watch the Red Raiders all over the place. And then. My youngest, our daughter just graduated from high school and she'll be a red raider starting this august when she starts at school there and love it.

I love to hear that. . So hopefully have all three graduate from Texas Tech. That would be a cool thing. , let's start in with it with the book , with run to the fire. So when did you make the decision  to write the book and  what prompted you to be sure that your dad's story was told?

I appreciate that question. I get asked a lot. How long did it take you to write it and stuff like that? But really that I had been thinking about writing a book about my dad. Really, as long as I can really remember I had a really unique setting of watching him grow up or watch me growing up and watching how he lived his life.

And so I always knew he was a hero, really a superhero to me. And then all the people around us. And so growing up, I always thought, man, so many people could benefit hearing his story and not only people that kind of grew up around him or family or friends that watched him every day as a role model, but how could I help tell his story?

And even when he was still alive, I was able to tell his story with him. In a number of different settings around schools and other organizations that we're looking for a really a great I'll call it a hero story. Somebody who has risen beyond their challenges and got back up. When did I decided to decide truly to write the book?

I probably as an adult, the last 10 plus years of watching my dad, knowing that at some point that we were going to lose him. I just knew that, you know, probably when he passed, I would probably take, you know, take the appropriate time to write a story that we think can really impact people's lives.

There's no question about that in a lot of different ways. And so my dad passed in December of 2020. And I probably the next year or so was really started thinking about that book, obviously, reflecting in my own grief of losing my best friend and my hero and then started to really put pen to paper.

And so I use the stories that I work witness firsthand, and then also stories from his family and dear friends to really formulate this book and then wrote it took about a year to write. And then launched the book about a year and a half ago. Let me ask you about how, football influenced your dad and how football molded Rick Collins into who he ultimately became.

And, you know, he, I guess I think at a at a young age, we all need a different way to a, an outlet, if you will, to  channel , some aggression and not aggression but just some some youth angst if you will. And to have something , like football to have a coach or a mentor at that time, it really helped him a lot.

If I'm reading that. Yeah. Yeah. Without question. For my dad had grew up really an interesting background. Didn't have a dad. So he's really raised by his mom, really young teenage mom, in fact, and his grandparents and really surrounded by uncles that were really strong male role models and didn't grow up with a whole lot.

And 1 of the things that my dad would do, he was an honorary kid, got into a lot of trouble as a youth and football and his coaches in the mesquite school district. Really are the ones that. Really what he would give a lot of credit to early in his life gave him an outlet for aggression.

My dad was a tough guy. Probably didn't shy away from many fights whether that was in the streets of Dallas or Mesquite, Texas, but football was one of those areas. that he had some really strong role models in the coaches that he had, really, from middle school into high school. And those were relationships he actually carried throughout his entire life until many of them had passed themselves.

But football was one of his ways. It was very talented in it. He probably loved the physicality of it, which probably helped him later in life tackle some of his obstacles for sure. And football for him whether it was offense or defense, he lived his life like he was on the two yard line.

And if you know, football, you know, that if you're on offense and you're on the two yard line, you know, you got to punch it in. You don't get many opportunities and you've got to deliver the opposite. side of that is if you're on defense and you're on the two yard line, you are doing everything you've got to do, scratching, clawing, doing everything you can to keep the opponent from scoring.

And so if you think about the mentality of living life on the two yard line where everything really is important, knowing what's what you've got to do to get through to whatever that next play is, that's how we lived life. So those coaches started it. And then and we'll sure we're going to talk a little bit about his injuries and things of that nature.

But when he came back from Vietnam, he was 100 percent disabled. And so he couldn't work. And so my mom actually went and signed him up to coach in Garland, Texas, in the youth football league there, and she did it because she knew that. an outlet like that was going to be a great outlet for him.

He had, he always bragged about his coaches and those relationships and how much they meant to him. And so if he could turn that and give back to youth, he wanted to do that. You know, so many times people get into youth coaching because they have kids playing. My dad didn't have any kids yet. old enough to play any sports.

So he was coaching well before he could ever coach me personally and then even coached after that. And so he loved teaching the game of football. But more than that, he was teaching character traits and just leadership and how you come together as a team and football. So even for me growing up, I can remember almost as one of my earliest memories.

of life was being by his side, watching him coach football, take me to high school games, take me to college games and watching football all the time. It meant a great deal to him. And then for myself, I fell in love with the game of football and my dad coached me as a youth. He was every one of my practices.

He was at every one of my games all the way through even get to play a little bit at Texas Tech early in my college life. And then his grandsons, my two boys, he was at literally every practice and every game of theirs also for all of their youth. And those two kids like I mentioned, playing college football now my dad, Rick Collins was a huge influence on that.

And I'm going to talk about. you know, Roger Staubach and heroes of his, he grew up in the Dallas area. So it was first the Dallas Texans and then the Dallas Cowboys. And so he would talk about one of the greatest things for him growing up was going to the cotton bowl, the old cotton bowl and watching the Dallas Texans play.

And that was obviously the professional team at the time. And then the Dallas Cowboys.  In 1970, When my dad had actually gotten hurt a second time, he had actually been hit by a bus which is just crazy to even say those words. But he was run over by a bus while in a vehicle and spent about six months in the V.

A. Hospital in Dallas. And one of the visitors that he had on multiple occasions there was Roger Staubach. was a young player with the Dallas Cowboys have been drafted, have had served some time in the Navy after his Naval Academy graduation. It obviously won the Heisman Trophy. As you mentioned, he was in Vietnam as well, and he would come.

Roger Staubach would come to the V. A. Hospital in Dallas without any fanfare. without an entourage, and he would walk up and down the hallways and just peek ahead into rooms, ask if it was okay to come in and visit. And my dad would tell you that meant such an incredible amount to all those young soldiers who were new coming back from Vietnam, a lot of them recovering or others that maybe from Korea or World War Two that happened to need health care from the VA at the time.

And Roger Stoback would come and sit for hours at a time in the rooms of these these young soldiers like my dad. And that meant an incredible amount for somebody like if his stature to go do that. And when I was writing the book. 1 of the things that I always thought about is, man, you know, could I have a Roger Staubach write the forward of a book?

And had some connections to him through a close family friend. And long story short, he became the author of the that 1st section of the book that really can is pretty inspiring just to listen to his and read his words about my dad and stuff. Pretty cool.  , you pretty much answer what I was gonna ask, but  my next question was  how important is football to your family?

I think you answered that pretty well. Yeah, you know, it's funny. I we definitely are in a football family, but I think it goes beyond which what we think about the X's and O's. I think it's the why football has been so important. It's a It literally is the dichotomy of life. You're going to get knocked down and you've got to get back up.

You've got to figure out a way to get back up. And it's not always on your own. You've got a, you've got a successful football team has got to depend on a number of players on every single play. In fact, all 11 have got to be pulling together in the same direction for something positive really to happen.

And it's a life is really football. And my dad not only love the game of football, but love the game of life and how those two areas parallel each other. And so there's not a whole lot of sports where you get knocked down. Your face might be in the mud kicked. And every other thing that you can imagine, and you got to enjoy it enough that you're going to get back up and do it again the next play over and over again.

And then the grueling aspect of wearing a helmet and pads and just the pounding that your body takes and maybe the screams of coaches. And still love it. Football for our family was something pretty special. And so even for my kids, I think they fell in love with it at a very early age. And their papa, my dad was such a huge catalyst of that as well.

They love to go to games with him. They love 1 of the things that we loved is. My dad would cheer for every single player on a team, for example, on my teams and my kids teams. And that always there was something just special. Football was more than just a team. It was a family, no matter which team it was.

And my dad valued family so much. He valued being on a team so much. And one of the things that he always stressed for myself and my boys. Was the value of being an incredible teammate and also being coachable. And if you're a great teammate, you know what your role is and you take that role and you love it and you put a lot of pride into it.

No matter if you're on the offensive line or defensive line, or you don't get your name called a whole lot, or you're not in the paper. That doesn't matter. You, if you're a really good teammate, you're gonna pull for everybody on your team. You're gonna do whatever you need to help the team which also means being very coachable.

And so he taught us how to be coachable and to understand that we don't have all the answers, whether in football or in life. And it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to ask for guidance. Those are some of the things that there's so many parallels to football that we learned for life lessons and our family.

And those are part of the, what we tell in that story of the book run to the fire for sure. But football is. hate to say it, that we don't idolize football. God and Jesus are front and center for our family. But faith and our family and football, those three F's really do go together in a Collins household for sure.

. And you know, you mentioned the two yard line, but how you're if you're on offense, you got to punch it in. If you're on, if you're on defense, You got to stuff them right there. But with to me, with what your dad was able to overcome, he was put on the two, but he was on offense and having to drive 98 yards the other way.

Would you say that's is that accurate? Yeah, there's no question. There's not a whole lot of human beings that I've ever met. And I'm sure there are, because and I'll tell you this, my dad would always say there's somebody that's not just worse off, probably far worse off than somebody else or for yourself as an example for him.

But without question, he was you know, from the jump, you know, didn't have the normal family structure to going to, you know, he enlisted in into the Vietnam War, enlisted into the army and then had such setbacks when it came to crippling injuries that most people Wouldn't have been able to survive not just physically, but also emotionally.

And especially during that time, our Vietnam veterans, which there's about 3 and a half million still disabled Vietnam veterans out there right now that. That faced really a, an unpopular war. They were asked by their country to go to a foreign land and many of them gave up, not just limbs and other injuries, but also the emotional toll of coming back to the U.

S. and not getting Ticker tape parade, not getting the recognition of appreciation of them wearing the uniform. And so anyway, there's a lot of deeper meaning to me when I think about my dad and folks like him young boys that went to Southeast Asia and left a lot of themselves there.

And so without question, my dad coming back and dealing with some significant amputee injuries and other elements of that he lived an entire life. And then the rest of his adult life dealing with severe injuries and chronic pain and then along the way, some very emotional catastrophic emotional things that had happened to him as well.

The thing that really strikes me about him being in Vietnam is that he had this tremendous sense of duty and actually volunteered. And he did. He wasn't drafted. He wasn't, and he just he volunteered and enlisted and that he did that. That says an awful lot. Yeah, interesting enough.

I'll take you a step back. So when he was in high school, while he loved football and loved his teammates at Mesquite High School, he loved being a mesquite skeeter. He loved a young lady named Linda May Hall even more. And Linda May Hall was his childhood sweetheart. And they decided after midway through his junior year of high school, you know what?

Maybe I'll start thinking about the future together. They ended up getting married very early, even in high school. And my dad said, you know what? I want to build a career in the military. And so he did. He had uncles that had fought in World War two. His family thought a lot of the building a potential career in the military.

And so my dad, he did. He enlisted and thought he was going to build a career in the U. S. Army. And so that's what he did. He enlisted and thought, you know what? There's a war going on. I know some people that grew up around him that were either drafted or enlisted as well. And that's the choice he made.

And even throw even through dealing with such catastrophic injuries, my dad all the way through his entire adult life would say he would do it again. that tells you a lot about him around commitment to service. Even though he knew when he signed up, he knew that when you put, when you make that decision, you were going to take your life at risk and then also risk literally limbs as well.

But he was willing to do it and he says he would have done it again, which again, tells you a lot about the rick collins of that we knew. Absolutely. And for most of  them,  if someone comes up and says, Hey, thank you for your service. You know, the response is often,  it was an honor  to serve this country.

Yeah, my dad thought that without question. question. He thought it was, he was honored to serve our country. He was extremely patriotic. He believed in the values that our country was were founded on and believe that those were worth fighting for and our freedom and not just our freedom. He was over there trying to protect and create freedom for the people of South Vietnam as well.

And he believed in that and did. His entire life, even though there's a lot of controversy about that war, what's not controversial is the guys that were fighting side by side that were in really the pits of hell in that jungle and what he would tell you is he saw some of the greatest humanity with some of those guys that fought together, right?

They would do. Sorry. I get a little emotional talking about it. Thinking about it, but understandable. He he would just talk about that. You know, he had guys save his life and he would do anything to save other guys lives as well because he also knew that some of them didn't volunteer and, but he, it was his duty to help protect as many as he could.

And he would hope that they would do the same for him. But so there's a definitely a deeper meaning for those guys that fought and and fought together and fought. In the book, you talk about purposeful intent, about how they just, there are so many barriers to winning the war and they just had to do, you know, ordinary things with consistency and that was the only way to survive.

And  his faith in God really brought him through it. , you mentioned that  grandmother sent a Bible. Is that right? And prayed for the unit. That was another thing that got him through. Yeah, without question. His mom his entire family was very Christian faith and and believe that Jesus died for all of us.

And his grandmother, which would be my great grandmother, gave him a Bible. And in that, she said, I will be praying for you every day. And he would, even when he came back, that was literally the only thing that My dad was able to come back from Vietnam with was that small little Bible that she provided him.

And without question he knew that those prayers, he had a different, he had a, there was a meaning in life. that God had for him specifically to survive Vietnam. And, you know, and I'll share just a little bit around that experience. The day my dad stepped on a landmine really lost his legs during that day and then also took three rounds through the shoulder, shot three times.

Eight of the 12 in his squad died that day. And so you think about the, you know, they're eating together, sleeping together, learning about each other's families. Some of them were married like my dad. Some of them already had kids, even though they were young. That really there was a purpose for my dad surviving that day.

I wouldn't be here. if it weren't for my dad's survival. And we thank God every single day that he allowed my dad to live through that catastrophic time. It's it's pretty amazing. It's pretty mind boggling how God can work in just those infinite capacities. And, you know, the things that are planned decades and decades down the road.

Yeah. If not centuries. So that's right. That's really amazing. Yeah. There's definitely a plan. No doubt. Always.   You guys were, tell me about this and I, I don't know how much you remember that, that day, but  there's an accident and there's a fire and your dad.

Stops  and runs to the fire, and I think that was a big inspiration , for your book, , and he rescues this teenage girl , that's pinned against the steering wheel, and he carries her 50 yards away, leaves the scene, doesn't give his name, all that, , what was the reaction , of the firefighters , that were called to the scene , that night?

Yeah, and yeah the title of the book run to the fire was really inbred in me that literally that evening, it was about 10 o'clock at night and to give you a little perspective. We lived out in the country between Garland Plano Allen out in the country in North Dallas area, and it's about 10 o'clock at night.

We're driving. And this was a time when people didn't wear seatbelts. There wasn't a law to wear seatbelts. I was 5. I was actually sitting in the bench seat between my parents and I could see this fire up ahead of us. And as we closed in on that fire there's no, there's not very many homes around at all.

This is truly out in the country. We come up on that fire and There wasn't a second that went by in indecisiveness from my dad. My dad tells my mom, go get help. There's a house about 300 yards away or so. And as my mom is grabbing me and my 2 year old sister in the back seat she has to go around to get her, but she's pulling me out of the car.

I literally watch my dad who to give you Take a step back. So my dad's loss of legs in Vietnam. Obviously, that's pretty catastrophic. He walked with crutches and had a really interesting gate where he couldn't walk very fast, but he had to literally swing each leg around. He walked on these crutches and so I had never seen my dad run.

I knew he was a great athlete. When he was in high school and all that but never obviously had seen my dad run. I'd seen him as a disabled man. And at that moment, I literally watched my dad run to this engulfed fire that is literally engulfed the front of an entire vehicle. This vehicle had run into a concrete barrier at a T, really close to South fork ranch.

which is the old Dallas house from the TV show Dallas. In fact and as I'm getting out, I literally watched my disabled father not hesitate for a second and literally run to the fire. By the time my mom and I, my little sister ran to this house. Somebody was on the phone there. They had already, they could see it from a distance, had called for paramedics and the fire department.

By the time we run back, my dad has pulled this unconscious teenage girl. And of course I wasn't too close. I was, I was bawling because I thought my dad was gonna pass away, run into that fire. That's all I knew was I was gonna come back and my dad may not be there. My dad is leaning over this girl.

Paramedics come, fire department comes from Plano. They end up, they're working on the getting the fire out. The paramedics are working on this teenage girl. They revive her, get her breathing again. And I remember that night And I just remember the paramedics and the fire department personnel just surrounding my dad like You could tell my dad was, you know, was it was disabled and had barely use of his lower legs.

And they're wondering how in the world he got her out of this vehicle. She was pinned between literally the front of her car was completely collapsed. So one of the things my dad did because he didn't have real use of his legs, he had to lift weights all the time to keep his upper body extremely strong.

And so I also used to go to the gym with my dad and watch my dad swim and lift weights. My dad broke the steering column to be able to pull this girl out. And  they could not believe it that a human could literally do that. A long time after when I was much older, probably I was probably in my twenties when, because this thing was ingrained in my mind.

I asked my dad, what dad, what were you thinking? You know, you had already, you lost your legs. You had and we'll get to this. But my dad had also lost his wife and young son after his injuries in Vietnam. My dad lost them in a car accident and his mother in law before he met my mom and which was a whole nother in and of itself.

But my dad without question didn't hesitate. And I always wanted to know what was going through his mind in that split second. And , his words to me were somebody in that vehicle was loved by somebody. He didn't know who was in the vehicle. He didn't know how many were in the vehicle, but he didn't hesitate for a second to go try to save somebody's life.

Knowing that he could have jeopardized his own life to do it just like he would have done in Vietnam and elsewhere. And so that was my dad. It was run to the fire. If somebody needs help, we got to figure out how we can help him. And so that, you know, that's a, that will live with me. I can so vividly see that setting of that fire and then see that girl laying there and thinking, my dad who's disabled.

is an absolute hero. But he lived his life like that. It was always we're gonna get up and we're gonna help somebody. We're gonna be in service to somebody. And that's had a has had a resonating effect on our entire family. Not just me, my and my kids and my wife and our family. But everybody that's known my dad is like taking that mantra of let's help somebody.

Let's run. Let's literally run to the fire. When somebody is in need, we get to help. . And he did such an amazing job of that.  And so that kind of leads to my next question is  How is he able to , overcome such adversity in just everyday life and you mentioned in the book how like maybe on a slow or maybe when we talk that on a slow day, it takes a normal person with full capacity, maybe five minutes to get ready, but it took him , almost an hour  ready.

And yet he faced every day with such grace and courage. Yeah , really a few things 1 faith, if he didn't have the hope of God in his life and all of that, he would think why am I even doing this? And so he realized that he had a, there was a bigger purpose for him. The 2nd thing is gratefulness.

My dad lived a life of  gratefulness, even at the smallest little victories. He was grateful for any opportunity to live and where that really stem from when he was at Brooke Army Hospital and at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. After he had been hurt, he had to spend almost a year. They're recovering and here he was.

He's been shot multiple times. He had malaria that he had to overcome because of blood transfusions. He got malaria. He's lost legs. He's had all these surgeries, et cetera. He even had physicians telling him you won't ever be able to walk. And my dad sat  in a hospital bed watching other guys and maybe they lost all four of their limbs.

He listened to the young men and they were really boys. That were burned 90 percent of their body at Fort Sam Houston, and he could hear them crying all night long. And my dad remembers thinking, God has a purpose for me and my injuries and what I'm going to deal with is not near as bad as what they're going to deal with.

And right then, along that line was, he turned his, he turned that into a positive thought process of, it can always be worse. Yeah, I've got to find the good in the darkness, et cetera. The other thing that gratefulness was important. And then it was also love of family. And 1 of the things he credits his ability to get back up off the mat, if you will, or off the field back up.

Was his family in Dallas would caravan about 7 hours down to San Antonio. And they would do that every weekend. His mom is what became his stepdad, his cousins, his aunts, uncles, his wife. And her family, they would literally caravan from Dallas to San Antonio to see him every weekend over the course of about 11 months in his recovery.

And what he found in that was, while people guys that came back from Vietnam, they weren't really accepted a whole lot for where they had been and what they