In 1942, during WWII, he left university to join the Merchant Marines as an ordinary seaman but later entered the US Air Force.
He served as a B-17 radar navigator-bombardier with the Eighth Air Force Pathfinder School in England from 1943 to 1945.
At the end of McAllister's time as bishop, the diocese was more financially sound and had grown to 80 congregations, missions, parishes, and two conference centers.
Later he served as a bishop-in-residence at the Seminary of the Southwest and chaplain to Clergy Families in the Diocese of West Texas from 1991 to 1993.
[5] Bishop McAllister died in his native San Antonio, Texas on June 10, 2014, aged 91.