Courier_Post_Sun__Sep_23__2007

Camden Courier-Post - September 16, 2007

S.J. loses another Marine in Iraq

By LEO STRUPCZEWSKI

His second tour of duty was nearly complete when he called Friday.

For Terry Allen, his time in Iraq was scheduled to end Tuesday and the infantryman was away from the combat, biding his time in Al Anbar Province before heading back to the United States on a secure air base that is used to shuttle troops to Kuwait.

It brought comfort to his parents, John and Connie Allen of Pennsauken, when their son called. Because when this tour started, they rarely heard from him. The combat seemed rough. The calls were short. And the letters were few. Recently though, contact was picking up.

In the last week, John Allen spoke with his son three times.

"We really thought we were in the clear," he said. "We were thrilled. He was actually able to have a conversation."

But hours after getting off the telephone with his mother Friday, officials said Terry Allen was found dead. A single bullet, likely from a sniper, hit him in the head. The Marine corporal and Pennsauken resident was 21.

John Allen remembers his son's decision to join the Marines as a bit of a shock.

In 2004, Terry Allen was a senior at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School and enlisted that January. He went through the Marines' delayed entry program, spending the remaining months of high school training with his recruiting officer and preparing himself for what was ahead.

He was an honor student, played football and ran track at the private high school and his parents were hopeful he would choose to attend college. They persuaded him to look at the military academies, John Allen said, but something clicked in his son's mind and he decided enlisting was the only option.

"As a younger kid, he had an interest, but it really spiked when he hit the high school level," John Allen said. "We were thinking he would go the college route, but he said, "I can do that in the military.' . . . He was almost looking forward to boot camp."

A former football teammate used words like "serious," "honest" and "straightforward" to describe him.

They were qualities that brought success.

During his freshman year at Bishop Eustace, he was knocked unconscious by an opposing player from Cherry Hill High School East as he went to make a catch. He broke his hand his sophomore year, but had a cast put on and didn't miss a practice or game.

"He was one of those kids that did everything you asked of him. The weight room, off-season workouts, he was a consummate team player," said Terry Allen's head football coach Tim McAneney. "He was intense, focused and driven. I mean, I'm a Eustace alum and I'm proud he's a kid I could call a fellow alum."

As a Marine, he was rising through the ranks. While deployed, Terry Allen re-enlisted for another four years and received word he would be promoted to sergeant in January. The promotion brought a new job training officer on a firing range at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina.

"We were thrilled," his father said. "(The combat) was always a concern of ours. He said (the new position) was non-deployable for awhile."

John Allen said his son was beginning to plan for life as a Marine. In a phone call on Wednesday morning, the two discussed financial options. Terry Allen was planning to get a place of his own at Camp LeJeune, rather than live in the barracks.

But before all that, he planned to visit home.

The "couple-week" visit was scheduled to begin Sept. 27 and family was beginning to make plans.

Father and son were to head to a local restaurant to watch Terry Allen's favorite football team, the Miami Dolphins, play the Oakland Raiders on a Sunday afternoon. A nice dinner was in the works. And when word broke last week about fellow Marine John T. Hicks, an Atco resident, dying in combat, the Allens focused on Tuesday.

"It was on everyone's minds," John Allen said. "We thought about how lucky we were he was coming home.".