CW3 Doris "Lucki" Allen, USA Ret. Oral History

title:

CW3 Doris "Lucki" Allen, USA Ret. Oral History

creator:

Allen, Doris Ilda "Lucki" (1927 May 9 - )

subject:

Women's Army Corps (WAC) | Army

description:

Doris “Lucki” Ilda Allen was born on May 9, 1927 in El Paso, Texas and grew up there with three brothers and one sister. She graduated from a segregated high school in 1944. Her older brother served in Guam during World War II, and she remembers him coming home with PTSD and several stories of verbal and physical racist attacks against him. She sees this as a reason she joined the military, to get some sort of revenge for what her brother was put through. After high school, Allen attended Tuskegee University majoring in physical education, and she credits her time there as teaching her how not to be oppressed. Since they both graduated, her older sister had entered the Army as an officer and although Allen could’ve done the same thing, she wanted to rise through the ranks and enlisted in Jackson, Mississippi on October 13, 1950 instead. After basic, she worked for a few years in public information at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. After continually being overlooked for a promotion, she changed went to language school and was moved to intelligence. This change sent her to Monterey, California in 1963, where she learned French. In 1967, Allen volunteered to go to Vietnam since French was a common language in the country and she thought she could do some good over there. Although she was brought over as an interrogator, she ended up working as an intelligence analyst at Long Binh from October 1967 to March 1970. She believes that she did her work to the best of her ability while in Vietnam, regardless if anyone listened to her. She also saw connections between the war in Vietnam and in Iraq, worried that the US was getting in over its head and the public wasn’t being well-informed about what had been going on. Allen retired from service in June 1980 with the rank Chief Warrant Officer 3. In her 30 years in the Army, she served around the United States, in Japan, Germany, and Vietnam. She was also awarded a Bronze Star with 2 oak leaf clusters, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with palm, Vietnam Service Medal, Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Presidential and Meritorious unit citations. She was also inducted to the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in 2009. This interview was conducted by phone, and a transcript of this interview is available.

publisher:

Military Women's Memorial Foundation

contributor:

Scott, Kate M.

date:

2004-08-17

type:

Audio

format:

CD

identifier:

015; 2004.015

source:

CLIR - Recordings at Risk

language:

English

relation:

003303

coverage:

Vietnam War (1964-1975) | Korean War (1950-1953) | 1950-1980

rights:

Unrestricted