The Mundt-Allen Post 81 American Legion on Vernon Street. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
BETHEL — Stanley Willis Allen of Bethel was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The remains of Stanley Allen of Bethel, who was killed at the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, were positively identified 80 years later on May 24. Submitted photo
More than 80 years later, on May 24, his remains were identified. He will be buried with full military honors at the New Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery, Augusta, on Tuesday, July 18 at 1 p.m.
Allen was 25 years old when he and 428 crewmen died after being attacked by Japanese aircraft. They hit the USS Oklahoma with several torpedoes at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Born July 17, 1916, Allen lived on Main Street in Bethel, and according to his birth certificate was the first son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Allen.
He was an honor student at Gould Academy and was “an outstanding athlete in three major sports,” according to the Lewiston Daily Sun (April 27, 1934). He starred as end on the undefeated football team, and as center on the basketball team which won the championship. He was president of the Gould chapter of the YMCA. “He has taken an active part in winter sports, public speaking and dramatics,” reported the Sun.
He received his commission as ensign at the naval air station, Jacksonville, FL. and was a platoon leader of cadet officers.
Allen hoped to eventually have a career in the hotel restaurant service. He spent seven summers working at the Bethel Inn and later worked at the Wentworth-by-the-Sea, Portsmouth, NH.
A cenotaph or a grave where the body is not present, for Stanley Allen is in the Pine Grove Cemetery, West Bethel. Susan Young photo
He was appointed as a cadet at the United States Military Academy West Point, New York and upon completion of a year’s training as a plebe, he returned to civilian life.
On June 17, 1939 he is listed in the Sun Journal as receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from Bowdoin College, while working summers at Kimball House, Northeast Harbor ME.
After graduating from college he became manager of the Bethel Restaurant, Bethel.
On October 8, 1940 Allen enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman second class, at Boston MA. and continued his training in the Naval Reserve Aviation Base, Squantum, MA. where he was appointed an aviation cadet on Jan. 15, 1940 and then a naval aviator June 26, 1941, he was assigned to duty flying in Observation Squadron One on the USS Oklahoma.
Following a 15-day furlough with his parents in Bethel, he returned to the USS Oklahoma on July 29, 1941 according to the Lewiston Sun.
The December 17, 1941 the Lewiston Daily Sun reported that Allen’s parents had received a telegram the previous Tuesday saying their son, aboard the USS Oklahoma, was “lost in action at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7.”
Allen’s acts of bravery and selflessness were recognized with the awarding of the Purple Heart.
His remains were exhumed from the graves of the USS Oklahoma “unknowns” after nearly seven decades and identified using recent advances in forensic technology.
Allen is survived by his closest living relative, his first cousin Beverly Prosser Gelwick, of Harpswell.
The Mundt-Allen 81 American Legion Hall on Vernon Street was named for George Mundt and Stanley Allen, the first Bethel citizens to die in World War I and World War II, respectively.
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