CWO3 Doris “Lucki” Allen served 30 years in the Army. After earning her degree, Ms. Allen taught school for a short time before enlisting in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) on Friday the 13th of October 1950. Hoping to join the Army band, but denied the opportunity because she was black, she became an entertainment specialist. She served in occupied Japan during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953 and while there, because she was a college graduate, became editor of the newspaper and a journalist. She later served at Camp Stoneman in California, where her sister, a WAC captain, was her commanding officer.

Following another stint in Japan from 1956 to 1958 as a public information officer, Specialist-5 Allen was posted to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where she served as an information specialist. She then went to language school, studied French, and went on to Fort Holabird, Maryland for the prisoner of war interrogation course. She thus entered military intelligence. She was assigned as an interrogator at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Now Specialist-7 Allen (one of only 22 people in the entire armed forces to hold that rank) became the Latin America desk officer and studied the likes of Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra.

In 1967, Specialist-7 Allen was assigned to the Army Operations Center at Army headquarters in Long Binh, and served as a senior intelligence analyst. She felt mostly ignored because she was “black, WAC, intelligence, 'Spec-7,' and enlisted.” But because her intelligence analysis often proved right, she learned that even when she was ignored: “No matter, you’ve got to stick with it anyway.”

During her second tour, she served as a supervisor in the security division at the 1st Logistical Command. She was promoted to warrant officer, and began her third consecutive tour in March 1970 as the officer in charge of translation services in Saigon. It was there that she learned that her name was on a North Vietnamese hit list, and she decided it was time to go home. She served ten more years before retiring in 1980. CWO3 Doris “Lucki” Allen was awarded the Bronze Star for her service in Vietnam. In 2009, she was the first and only black American military woman inducted into the Intelligence Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. She points out that Mary Browser, the greatest spy of the Civil War, is the only other black woman in the Hall of Fame. Ms. Browser was not military.

Keywords: Entertainment specialist, journalism, military intelligence, Intelligence Hall of Fame, Fort Huachuca, Women's Army Corps (WAC), Fort Holabird, Continental Army Command Tactical Intelligence Center (CONTIC), Tet, spec-7, MACV, USARV, 122 millimeter rocket, Song Bé, kite flying, counterintelligence 

Key Names: Mary Bowser, Master Sergeant Paul T. Westerman, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, General Ryan, James Campbell