WWII sailor, 83, receives belated Purple Heart
SURVIVED THE TORPEDOING OF AIRCRAFT CARRIER
By Jim Warren
JWARREN@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Allen Lafoe Jr. qualified for the Purple Heart the hard way in World War II, losing not only some of his skin but his ship as well.

But, because of a wartime bureaucratic mistake, he never got his Purple Heart -- until Wednesday.

"I don't know what to say," an emotional Lafoe, 83, told onlookers after Congressman Ben Chandler presented him with the belated decoration. "It's been a long time coming."

More than 65 years, actually.

Lafoe, a Woodford County native, joined the U.S. Navy one week after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was only 17.

After receiving a minimum of basic training, Lafoe was assigned to one of the Navy's proudest ships, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. He immediately found himself in the middle of history's biggest war.

During the first months of the conflict, the Wasp operated in the Atlantic and made two dangerous trips to the Mediterranean, delivering desperately needed warplanes to the British island of Malta, then under round-the-clock attack by German and Italian air forces. In the summer of 1942, however, the Wasp was sent to the Pacific, where the U.S. Navy had a shortage of carriers.

The Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on Sept. 16, 1942, while supporting the U.S. Marines' invasion of Guadalcanal. The crew abandoned ship, and U.S. vessels later sank the burning Wasp to prevent it from falling into Japanese hands.

Lafoe, who was helping man an anti-aircraft gun, was right above the spot where the last torpedo slammed into the Wasp.

"I got flash burns on the right side of my face and my hand, and I was knocked out," he recalled. "When I came to, everybody around me was gone. So, I crawled across the flight deck, slid down a fire hose, and started swimming."

Picked up by the U.S. destroyer Duncan, Lafoe spent months recovering at a hospital in New Zealand. He eventually returned to sea, spending the rest of war aboard the U.S. destroyer Tingey.

Lafoe, who has been retired from the sheet metal business for about 20 years, said he essentially gave up on getting the Purple Heart he had earned but never received.

But a few years ago his sister, Dela Rose, set out to right that wrong. She made phone calls, sent messages, even contacted New Zealand, only to be told that all of her brother's records had been lost. She didn't give up.

"I just kept thinking, 'Something's got to be done, because he deserves this,'" Rose said.

Rose contacted Chandler's office for help, and eventually found old stories from area newspapers that documented Lafoe's wartime injuries. All that culminated Wednesday, when Chandler presented Lafoe with the Purple Heart at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital. (It was chosen as the site for the ceremony because Lafoe was a patient there a few months ago.)

In addition to the Purple Heart, Chandler also gave Lafoe the Combat Action ribbon, which is awarded to Marines or Navy members who have been in combat; the Asia Clasp; two silver engagement stars for service in the Pacific; and one bronze engagement star for service in the Atlantic-Mediterranean.

"This is one of the things about this job I have that gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction," Chandler told Lafoe. "We're all mighty proud of you."

Several members of Lafoe's family were on hand, including his daughter, Diann Rose, and his grandson, Gene Allen Lafoe, who recently returned from a tour in Iraq with the Kentucky National Guard.

"I still don't know what to say," Lafoe said when the ceremony was over.

Ellie