Michael Collins was born on September 3, 1918, in Cottage City, Maryland. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on April 9, 1940, and went on active duty beginning May 7, 1941. After completing basic training at NTS Norfolk, Virginia, F2c Collins attended Machinist School, also at NTS Norfolk, from June to October 1941, and then attended Submarine School at Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, from November 1941 to March 1942. He then joined the crew of the submarine USS Grunion (SS-216) in March 1942, remaining aboard through her commissioning in April 1942, and was killed in action during a confrontation with the armed Japanese freighter Kano Maru on July 30, 1942. On August 22, 2007, a search team organized by the three sons of CDR Mannert Abele (the Captain of the Grunion when she was sunk) used a remotely operated vehicle to find a sunken vessel 3,000 feet down in the Bering Sea north of Kiska Island at the tip of the Aleutian Islands. On October 1, 2008, the U.S. Navy announced that the sunken vessel is the World War II submarine USS Grunion (SS-216).

His Navy Commendation Medal Citation reads:

For meritorious conduct as a member of the crew of the U.S.S. GRUNION which destroyed three enemy destroyers while engaged in a war patrol in enemy controlled waters. Despite severe and persistent anti-submarine measures resulting from these three successful attacks, the GRUNION was brought safely through the counter attacks and continued an aggressive war patrol. As a member of the crew of the GRUNION, your performance of duty was an important and material contribution to the prosecution of this war.