World War II Honoree

Robert Lee Allen

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Roseburg, Oregon

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Shipfitter Third Class. Inducted into the United States Navy December 12, 1939 at Portland, Oregon, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from boot camp and Shipfitter schooling, he was transferred to the USS Arizona Battleship, BB-39 for duty, responsible for fabricating, assembles and erects all structural parts of his ship, and based at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor of Japan and his Naval Aviators launched their well-planned attack on the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor and other military installations on Oahu. The Arizona along with her shipmates lay moored on Ford Island came under attack, and she was mortally wounded by an armor piercing bomb, igniting the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. Reported missing in action or buried at sea succeeding the attack. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.