CHESTER – The family of Army Lt. Lou Allen, who was killed in Iraq on June 6, 2005, is trying one more time to have the Army award him the Purple Heart medal posthumously.
Allen, a native of Chester, and Captain Philip Esposito, of Suffern, were killed in a bombing, allegedly by another army officer and since the men were not killed in battle, the top brass in the Army has turned down several requests to award the men the medal.
Allen’s widow, Barbara, was approached recently by an individual “up there in levels of government” who took the case to the highest levels this past week. “When this opportunity was presented we, of course, had to say yes. You just never know if this one more try is going to be the one that makes it happen, so we took some more days and reassembled the documents and put together a new packet for this person who also added their own information to it and delivered it to the Pentagon directly,” she said.
Allen has written to Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, but no action was taken.
If the Purple Heart medal is approved for Allen it would also be awarded to Esposito, said Allen. “They are together,” she said.
