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Bert Allen enlisted in the New York National Guard as a Private in 1941 and entered active service with the 101st Anti-Tank Battalion. He attended Officer Candidate School at the Infantry School Fort Benning, Georgia and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in January 1942. After various assignments with the 97th Infantry Division and Third Army, he participated in the Rhineland and Central Germany Campaigns in the European Theater and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel while in Europe in 1945. After Europe he was redeployed to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater with the 97th Division. In February of 1946 he was released from active duty and assigned to the Officers Reserve Corps.
While on active duty, he received the Bronze Star, American Defense Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two Stars, Asiatic-Pacific Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with Hourglass, Croix de Guerre with Gold Star, and Military Cross of Czechoslovakia.
Lieutenant Colonel Allen joined the 50th Armored Division, New Jersey Army National Guard in August 1948 serving as G1, G3 and in 1952 became Chief of Staff, promoted to Colonel in October of 1953. In June 1966 he was assigned as Assistant Division Commander and on April 30th, 1970, he was promoted and federally recognized as a Brigadier General and reassigned as Deputy Chief of Staff in March 1971. He retired from service in 1975.
General Allen was a graduate of the Advanced Course, the Armored School, Ft. Knox, Kentucky; Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas; the Guided Missiles Orientation Course at Ft. Bliss, Texas; the Senior Officer Nuclear Employment Course at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas; and the CBR Warfare Course at Dugway, Utah.
Prior to World War II General Allen received his BA in Economics from Colgate University in 1938 and after the War attended New York University prior to joining with the NJ National Guard. While at Colgate he met his future wife, a student at Syracuse University, Marjorie B Frick. After graduating from Syracuse as a Phi Beta Kappa, she went to graduate school at Yale University receiving a Master of Science degree. They had planned to marry at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University, but the War changed those plans eventually marrying at a church, while on assignment, near Fort Benning Georgia.
Prior to assignments in Europe and deployment to Japan, there were numerous US military assignments in Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, and California. After joining the 50th Armored Division, the Allen’s became lifelong residents of Westfield raising three children and being active in numerous civic organizations. General Allen served as a member of the Rotary Club, Armor Association, Mayor of Westfield’s Special Committee for Police and Moderator of the First Baptist Church in Westfield. Mrs. Allen was a member of The College Woman’s Club of Westfield and a member of the Westfield Memorial Library Board of Trustees, among other activities.
