USA: "Bronze Star - Elizabeth A. Allen ANC"

[No one]

Dear Gentlemen,

 

Here is the  "Bronze Star" attributed to Captain Elizabeth A. Allen ANC.

 

 

Finding a lot of information was a very rewarding experience for me this time.

 

- "My War" My War - Elizabeth A. Allen (historynet.com)

 

 

The following quotations come from this source:

 

Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War - Kara Dixon Vuic - Google ブックス

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I couldn't find was what other medals she was entitled to.

 

Latter on, I bought those items:

 

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

[Gordon Craig]

Interesting story on a nurse/s in Vietnam. Collecting articles to nurses is one of my main focuses.  Not just military nurses but nurses in general who served in hospitals for the war wounded.

Regards,

Gordon

 

[Bill Brouillard Jr.]

Unofficially engraved because the Army does not add the branch like "ANC"

 

Bill

[No one]

Dear Gordon Craig,

 

I just posted this article for you:

 

 

Dear Bill Brouillard Jr.

 

Thank you for the information.It's always a pleasure to receive some interesting remarks.

But without it I'm not sure I could have found her.

There are a lot of "Elizabeth A. Allen".

 

There is also this link: Elizabeth A. Allen Collection | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

[ChrisW]

Very interesting story behind this medal, thanks for bringing it to light

[ChrisKelly]

Likely, Captain Allen would have, at a minimum, the following awards for her Vietnam War service in addition to the Bronze Star Medal:

 

☆National Defense Service Medal.

 

☆Vietnam Service Medal with 4 bronze service stars (Vietnam Counteroffensive Phase II, Vietnam Counteroffensive Phase III, Tet Counteroffensive, & Vietnam Counteroffensive Phase IV).

 

☆Vietnam Campaign Medal (Republic of Vietnam).

 

☆The 71st Evacuation Hospital received a Meritorious Unit Commendation for its service in Vietnam, 1 October 1967 - 31 August 1968 (Department of the Army General Order [DAGO] 42, 69).  The "69" means DAGO 42 was issued in 1969.

 

From:

 

https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-bhl-2015036

 

"Elizabeth Ann Allen was born in Huntington, West Virginia in 1940. Her mother died when she was a young child and she and her four siblings were raised by her grandmother. During her high school years, public schools in the south were desegregated and Allen was encouraged by her teachers to enroll in the historically white high school. She excelled in school, particularly in the areas of math and science, but was one of the few African Americans in her school and faced discrimination from her teachers and classmates daily. She was able to succeed in spite of this adversity and went on to pursue a college education.

 

She received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Nursing, in 1965 and 1966 respectively, from the Ohio State University. In 1967, inspired by her brother's service, she voluntarily joined the United States Army Nurse Corps at the rank of Captain and requested assignment on the front lines of the Vietnam War. She was one of fewer than 100 African American nurses deployed. She reported to the 12th Evacuation Hospital at Cu Chi and remained there for about six months before being assigned as Head Nurse of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku. During this time, in 1968, Pleiku was targeted in the first round of surprise attacks known as the Tet Offensive.

 

Upon her return to the United States, Allen trained Army medics to act as psychiatric practitioners in the field at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania. In 1969, she was appointed, State Director for Psychiatric Nursing for the South Carolina Department of Mental Health and later went on to become Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of South Carolina where she received her PhD in 1973. She joined the faculty of the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan in 1976. In addition to her duties as a faculty member, she acted as Director of the Center for Continuing Education for Nurses, a position she held until 1982. In 1985, she served as Acting Director of Minority Affairs at the University.

 

Throughout her professional career, she advocated for veterans, and spoke on veterans' issues, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the treatment of women and African Americans in the military. She was appointed by Governor James Blanchard, in 1987, to the Agent Orange Commission and was twice elected as chair. She continued to serve as a Major in the Active Army Nurse Corps Reserve until 1988. As a professor, she worked to create awareness among her students of the ways in which poverty, race, and social justice can have an impact on the field of nursing. Allen retired from her position as Associate Professor in 2007 and was named Associate Professor Emerita of Nursing by the University Regents that same year."

 

Sources:

 

https://www.passionmilitaria.com/t195271-us-army-nurse-corps-elizabeth-a-allen-s-bronze-star

 

https://www.vietnamwarsummit.org/attend/participants/lizallen.html

 

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/112020

 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/71evac/

 

https://www.vvmf.org/items/2320/vive00401/

 

https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/explore/alphabetical-index/interviewees/2044-meeks-edie

 

https://www.loc.gov/collections/veterans-history-project-collection/serving-our-voices/vietnam-war/in-country/item/afc2001001.97581/

 

 

                                

 

 

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Edited December 25, 2024 by ChrisKelly

[ChrisKelly]

I do not know if Major Allen had any other awards during her twenty-one years of active and reserve army service (1967 - 1988), but she would have these at a minimum:

 

 

                                

  

   

Edited December 25, 2024 by ChrisKelly

[No one]

Dear ChrisKelly,

 

I am grateful for your time on this topic and for providing more information about Major Elizabeth A. Allen's biography.

 

Yours sincerely,

No one