CityView Magazine

M Having raised two daughters through 22 military moves to 19 different places, Melissa has mastered how to quickly turn each new home into a sanctuary for their family. "Oh my," she said, "we have lived in 19 places and carry a rucksack overflowing with wonderful and poignant family memories. Over the last several years deployments and our girls attending college have put a kink in our family time. However, I would say our most recent memories are from our time living in Italy as our girls were in high school. One that comes easily to mind is our trip to the Almalfi Coast on East- er weekend. I brought our eggs to decorate and we sat over- looking the coastline decorating Easter eggs! We were awed by Pompeii and the coastline, hiked up the volcano Mount Etna and experienced southern Italy traffic." Another way she said she's found to forge family ties is by having a 'You Are Special Today' plate that they use for fam- ily members' birthdays and other highlighted moments. Each person gets to choose their favorite meal to eat on their birth- day. "My husband picks grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup, one daughter always chooses eating out and the other one chooses German potato salad and bratwurst," she said. Despite the relative simplicity of her family's favorite meal requests, Melissa is a giſted hostess who enjoys entertaining, a skill she said she inherited from her own mother. "My mom taught me aspects of protocol and entertaining Melissa Helmick B ehind every great man is a strong woman – and that certainly is true of Melissa Helmick. This Fort Bragg housewife might hail from New Jersey, but Melissa has more charm than all those television divas combined. She has many titles and wears many hats — among them, wife of Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, the Commanding General of the 18th Airborne Corps — but she also spends countless hours vol- unteering in our community as the senior spouse advisor for Family Readiness Programs at Fort Bragg and working with the Bragg and Barn Thriſt shop, the Fort Bragg Area Commu- nity Foundation, the Fort Bragg Area Officer Spouses Club, the USO, the Partnership for Children and United Way. From stuffing goodie boxes for deployed soldiers to rub- bing elbows with other military spouses at family events, her pleasant, down-to-earth persona makes her one of the most approachable General's wives around. And, in direct contra- diction to the white-gloved image of General's wives in the past, Melissa admits that the most prized shoes in her closet are a pair of flip-flops. 66 | January/February • 2012 — she tended to be more formal in protocol, yet she created a very relaxed atmosphere," Melissa said. "Her home was al- ways open to friends, family and even strangers for a warm, delicious meal and good conversation. Because I especially enjoy entertaining, I believe I have spent a military lifetime of watching others and reading magazines, taking what I liked and what I didn't like and incorporating that into my own style and preferences." Much like during their courting days when Frank attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, Melissa spent more time talking to him on the telephone last year than talking with him in person. As the Deputy Command- ing General for Operations in Iraq, he was among the last of the American troops to leave there in December. "I married Frank 33 years ago, however I knew very little about the military and military life so I had no expectations of where we would go or what we would do," Melissa said. "I was in love, just happy to be with him and looking for my first job as an occupational therapist. We were married two years aſter he graduated from West Point in my hometown in New Jersey." She continued, saying, "One of the positives about a mili- tary lifestyle is that you learn to be resourceful and you also learn that although you may not want to figure 'it' out or learn how to do something new, you can do most anything you put your mind to. There is a certain sense of comfort in knowing that I can tackle anything that comes my way. Army spouses, of any age, are a resilient group of people!"

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