Ships
- USS Rail (AM-26) Lieutenant, 1 July 1945 – 29 April 1946
Orval Frank Allen, a lieutenant, commanded Rail from 1 July 1945 to 29 April 1946. The end date is the day NavSource and the ship's history both give for her decommissioning. He is not William Y. Allen, Russell Bowes Allen, or the other Allens distinguished by different full names.
Birth, home, and family were not found.
No academy class and no earlier ship are on the NavSource line. He relieved Lieutenant (junior grade) Edward Douglas White.
When he took command, Rail was still in the Philippines. The ship's history keeps her there, mostly around Samar, Leyte, and Luzon, through the middle of December 1945, past the surrender in August. On 26 December she left Guiuan and reached San Francisco on 5 February 1946 to begin inactivation under the Twelfth Naval District. A material inspection finished on 25 February recommended that she be decommissioned, stricken, and turned over to the Maritime Commission as a usable vessel. She was decommissioned on 29 April 1946. DANFS then says she was stricken on 15 August 1946 and delivered on 23 December 1946 to the Crowley Launch and Tugboat Company. NavSource says she was decommissioned and struck on 29 April and transferred to the Maritime Commission on 17 January 1947. Those later dates are the ship's disposal, and the sources do not say Allen remained with her after decommissioning.
No duty after 29 April 1946, and no date of death, was found.