Trial has forced our family away from home

Editor’s note: The following letter was written by the mother of 1st Lt. Louis Allen, a local soldier who killed in Iraq in 2005. Allen was 34 when he was killed. He left behind his wife, Barbara, and their four young sons. The family lived in Milford. Allen was a Chester (N.Y.) High School graduate and teacher at George F. Baker High School in Tuxedo, N.Y. Postscript to her letter, the trial opening has been delayed. To all: It’s finally here. The trial we waited for the last three and a quarter years is due to start on Oct. 7 with panel selection. Now that it is so close I am both scared and angry. I’m scared about the things we will see and hear about what my son went through, but I will not leave the courtroom. I’m angry because when it is very important for my family to be together, we will have to be apart. They cannot be away from home and their families for the duration of the trial. At the beginning, when I learned the trial was to be at Ft. Bragg, I wrote numerous letters to army personnel, President Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and General Vines, who was in charge in Iraq at the time of the murders. I begged and pleaded with them to please have the trial at West Point so that my four grandsons who lost their father would not have to be without their mother for such a long period of time. Louis has a brother and three sisters. We need to be able to comfort each other, but that can’t happen because my pleas were ignored by everyone I wrote to. The army basically told me to leave them alone and let them do their job. After three different letters to President Bush I finally got an answer from his Correspondence Secretary telling me “The President sends his best wishes.” I could not believe they would send such a callous reply. I even wrote two letters to Mrs. Bush appealing to her as a mother to please help my family. I received no reply at all from her. I’m sorry I stopped fighting for a West Point trial because, now that the trial is ready to begin, I can’t bear the thought of being away from my home and family for three months. Gold Star Mother, Vivian Allen Chester, N.Y.