Who is McAllister?

  • Published
  • By Airman John Day
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Many streets, buildings, hangars and halls around Columbus Air Force Base are dedicated in honor of an exemplary Airman, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty and is deemed worthy of being immortalized forever. This remarkable firefighter is one such Airman.

McAllister Fire Station was named after Senior Master Sgt. Robert McAllister, a firefighter with over 50 years of military service, in 2009.

He was born in Covington, Va., July 23, 1935. McAllister joined the Air Force in 1952 when he was 16 years-old. He fooled his recruiter into thinking he was 17, a legal age to join the Air Force at the time. Just a few years into his career, he married his wife Barbara, to whom he remained married to for 42 years until her death.

After reaching the rank of senior master sergeant with a selection for chief master sergeant, he retired and continued to serve the Air Force in the civilian sector.

Over the course of his 28 year Air Force career, he worked every position in the fire station including firefighter, crew chief, rescueman, rescue specialist, station chief, assistant chief, fire inspector, training chief, deputy chief and fire chief. He even worked directly with Pararescue Jumpers as a part of the elite Airborne Rescue Specialist/Firefighter.

During his time in Vietnam, he earned many prestigious medals, decorations and awards including 33 Air Medals for over 1,155 combat missions, the Silver Star for his participation in the recovery of a downed B-52H tail gunner, two Bronze Stars, six Meritorious Service Medals, six Air Force Commendation Medals and the Vietnamese Medal of Honor for training Vietnamese firefighters. McAllister was directly responsible for saving 17 Airmen and recovering several remains of those killed in action.

He considered his Tuy Hoa Air Base and Da Nang Air Base assignments in Vietnam his favorite because of all the danger he faced and the difference he made. Some of McAllister's assignments included multiple locations in England, the Phillipines, Vietnam, Japan and many state-side bases. On four separate assignments, he was stationed in Columbus Air Force Base.

Just one year after his military retirement in 1980, he joined the Federal Civil Service and served as fire chief at Columbus AFB until he retired once more in 2002. He died of cancer just a few years later in 2005.

Air Force officials renamed their Firefighter Heroism Award to the Robert A. McAllister Firefighter Heroism Award in honor of the most decorated firefighter in Air Force history. This award recognizes individual acts of heroism above and beyond the call of duty.