A retired Army National Guard officer from Georgia died Saturday, 10 years after he was shot in the head while searching for deserter Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan.
National Guard Master Sgt. Mark Allen died from complications from the head injury at the age of 46, according to funeral information posted online. He spent 21 years in the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard before he retired in 2013 after receiving a Purple Heart.
Allen took a sniper’s bullet in his head during a July 2009 search mission for Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off a U.S. military outpost in eastern Afghanistan and was captured by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network. Bergdahl was held for five years until the Taliban agreed to free him in exchange for the release of five Taliban figures from Guantanamo Bay. He was reduced in rank from sergeant to private, ordered to forfeit $1,000 a month for 10 months, and given dishonorable discharge, but he did not serve any prison time.
The Walton Tribune reported that Allen’s injury was so severe that he was confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak, and in need of 24-hour care. Allen’s wife Shannon testified at Bowe Bergdahl’s trial in 2017 that her role had changed from wife to caretaker of her husband.
“It’s taken away all of the interaction. He lost me as a wife. I’ve [become] his caregiver,” Shannon Allen told the court, reported NPR. “I mean, we can’t even hold hands anymore.”
In an emotional letter on a GoFundMe campaign created in 2014, Shannon thanked donors for raising more than $7,800 to buy a special jacket for her husband, whose arms were bent in such a way that he couldn’t wear regular outfits.
“My life is hard. I cry a lot. More than any of you know,” she wrote. “I cry because I miss my husband, because my kids miss out on their dad, because my fellow wounded warrior wives are in pain, because I heard a song on the radio that made me think of him, or because I accidentally sprayed his cologne and the memories all came flooding back.”
Allen is survived by his son, Cody, and a daughter, Journey, who was an infant when he was wounded in Afghanistan.
“He’s not able to reach out for her or talk to her,” Shannon said in court, reported The Associated Press. “He’s never had the chance to really play with her or help coach her sports or ask about her day.”
