LtCol Adam Leon Collier

Lieutenant Colonel Adam Leon Collier was born in London, England, on December 8, 1975, the firstborn child of Susan and Barry Collier. Adam attended Kindergarten and first grade at Rokeby School in Kingston upon Thames, London, England. The family returned to the United States in 1980.

In his youth, Adam attended both sessions of NASA Space Camp and NASA Space Academy, and showed early interest in becoming a shuttle commander. He attended honors classes in junior and senior high school in California, competing in football, wrestling, and cross country, while finishing in the top 1% of his class. In his free time, he became an expert with both a pistol and a rifle and amassed substantial experience in skydiving. An avid reader since his youth, he consumed books on military warfare and weapons.

Adam was accepted into the United States Naval Academy class of 1998.

Upon graduation, as a second lieutenant, he started his career at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, as an infantry officer. In January 2004, as a captain, Adam volunteered to join the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As part of the central military command, his first responsibility was as OIC (Officer in Charge) of the recruiting section. He supervised the opening of three recruiting stations for the new Iraqi Army and coordinated force protection to ensure anti-government forces would not interdict the recruiting process.

He was then assigned as Secretary to the Iraqi General Officer Selection Board. He was solely responsible for gathering data to determine which Iraqi Revolutionary Guard officers were qualified for service in the new Iraqi Army.

He was further assigned as liaison officer to the Ministry of Defense/Joint Headquarters. In his final assignment on this tour of duty, he served as First Brigade advisor, providing mentoring and training to the brigade staff. He was responsible for their initial deployment to Sadr City. He saw further action with them in Najaf and Fallujah.

Adam was awarded the Bronze Star for his leadership in training the brigade and leading them through successful deployments across the region.

When Adam was not deployed to a military war zone, he served as a Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), based in Los Angeles.  As a member of their Special Response Team (SRT), they were responsible for disrupting and dismantling drug cartels and trafficking networks, apprehending felons, and locating and shutting down illegal labs. They also seized assets to cut off the financial lifelines of criminal organizations.

Adam served a second tour in Iraq in 2009, followed by a tour of Afghanistan in 2011. There, he was assigned to an Australian Special Operations Task Force comprising Marines and DEA agents, serving as a JTAC — Joint Terminal Attack Controller. The task force conducted air assault operations into known Taliban strongholds, destroying heroin production facilities and eliminating enemy combatants.

This was Adam’s final deployment. In 2016, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and named Commander of the United States Marine Corps 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division.

He died by suicide on March 10th, 2018. He was 42 years old.

ADAM’S CREEDS (As found in his all-weather infantry fieldbook)

• The worst thing is not death; it is life without purpose.
• A leader should be less of a hero and more of a hero-maker.
• If you lose your composure, you lose the high ground.
• Keep it simple. Make it mandatory.
• Build the bench. Develop the team.
• Ensure readiness. Articulate risk.
• Rank affords you authority; it does not make you a leader.
• A leader goes first towards danger.
• A commander gets no second chances on character.