JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD NORTH, Joint Base Lewis-McChord — As a United States Army combat medic, Staff Sgt. Charles Allen died while helping wounded soldiers in Iraq.
Twelve years after Allen’s death, his name is now once again connected to helping soldiers in need.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord officials renamed a medical clinic after Allen Tuesday morning.
The Allen Soldier-Centered Medical Home offers soldiers in Allen’s JBLM brigade a place for physical therapy, basic first aid, and regular doctor visits.
“It is just absolutely awesome,” said Kathy West, Allen’s mother.
A sniper shot and killed Allen in January of 2007 while he was sitting on the back of a Stryker vehicle.
“They were coming back into base from a mission,” said Sgt. First Class Adam Schwartz, who served with Allen in Iraq.
“I was a junior medic under him. He taught me skills I actually used on the battlefield to save lives,” said Schwartz.
Schwartz spent five years getting the clinic renamed after Allen, a fellow combat medic.
He said the work, and the wait was worth it.
“When he was killed we didn’t have a lot of time to mourn,” said Schwartz. “We went right back out to work. 12 years later, for us, it’s closure.”
Allen’s mother said her son would have thought naming a building would have been “a little over the top,” but she added, “I think he would be happy people thought well enough of him to do this for him.”