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Allan was born on the 1st of October 1943, in Bethel, Connecticut, where he also grew up and attended school. He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and enlisted into the US Marine Corps the following year, on the 14th of November 1960. After boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, Allan went through individual combat training at Camp Lejeune and was then assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. At the end of his first enlistment, he was faced with the decision to get out of the Marines or re-enlist and be sent to Vietnam. Allan decided to re-enlist for a year, just to see if he truly had what it took to go through combat, after years of just training. By March of 1966, he was deployed to the Republic of Vietnam and he spent his first tour with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, and deployed again in December of 1969, this time with Company A, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines. Allan was then reassigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division, and it was his actions just three months into his deployment that would later earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company G, in connection with combat operations against the enemy on the night of 11 March 1970. Under the leadership of G/Sgt. Kellogg, a small unit from Company G was evacuating a fallen comrade when the unit came under a heavy volume of small-arms and automatic-weapons fire from a numerically superior enemy force occupying well-concealed emplacements in the surrounding jungle. During the ensuing fierce engagement, an enemy soldier managed to maneuver through the dense foliage to a position near the marines, and hurled a hand grenade into their midst which glanced off the chest of GSgt. Kellogg. Quick to act, he forced the grenade into the mud in which he was standing, threw himself over the lethal weapon and absorbed the full effects of its detonation with his body, thereby preventing serious injury or possible death to several of his fellow marines. Although suffering multiple injuries to his chest and his right shoulder and arm, G/Sgt. Kellogg resolutely continued to direct the efforts of his men until all were able to maneuver to the relative safety of the company perimeter. By his heroic and decisive action in risking his life to save the lives of his comrades, G/Sgt. Kellogg reflected the highest credit upon himself and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.

Allan remained in Vietnam and was again wounded two months later, this time being evacuated to a hospital in Japan, where he was informed that he would be receiving the Navy Cross. Five months later, he was discharged from the hospital and by December was assigned to be an instructor at the Field Medical Service School at Camp Pendleton, California. On the 15th of October 1973, Allan’s Navy Cross was upgraded, and he received the Medal of Honor from President Nixon in a ceremony at the White House, along with eight others. He was serving at the Marine Barracks at Pearl Harbor in 1975 during the fall of Saigon and wheeled in a television set for junior Marines to see what was happening during the evacuation of the US Embassy.

In 1984, Allan was the first to designate the casket of an unknown service member in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor. This casket then was transported to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and was displayed in the Capitol Rotunda. On Memorial Day 1984, President Reagan presented the Medal of Honor to this unknown service member, who was later identified as First Lieutenant Michael Blassie.

Allan retired from the Marine Corps in 1990 after thirty years of service and at the rank of Sergeant Major. He worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Hawaii and has seven children: Rhonda, Krissie, Tanya, Jay, Meagan, Aaron (who served in the Army’s 173rd Airborne) and Maile. Allan Jay Kellogg Jr is 79 years old as of the time of this recording.