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Second home

Photo By Master Sgt. Ryan Matson | U.S. Army Capt. Irene Mallet, a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot with Alpha Company, 1-214th...... read more read more

WIESBADEN, GERMANY

01.14.2021

Story by Master Sgt. Ryan Matson and Sgt. John Todd

7th Army Training Command

They say home is where your heart is.

If this is the case, U.S. Army Capt. Irene Mallet, a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot with Alpha Company, 1-214th Aviation Battalion, has two homes…with good reason.

Mallet is the daughter of American and French Army officers. She lived the first 18 years of her life in Europe, mostly France and Germany, before attending a year of high school and college in the United States.

Now, 11 years later, she is back in Europe flying helicopters, only about an hour and a half from Rastatt, Germany, where she was born. She considers both the United States and France to be home.

“I do have two homes,” Mallet said. “But by the same token, that means I’m always away from home, no matter where I am. It’s kind of hard to explain – I’m so lucky that there are two places where I feel at home, but no matter where I am, I miss the other.”

Mallet’s story began in 1985 at a military ball in Germany. Her mother, Donna, then an American intelligence officer, explained how she met her future husband, Philippe, then a French engineering officer.

“At that time my unit, the 8th Infantry Division, stationed at Bad Kreuznach, Germany, did some partnership events with his unit, the 12th Engineer Regiment stationed in Speyer, Germany,” Donna recalled.

“We would do international shooting competitions, and ultimately the French unit invited the American officers to their French military ball. I had not met Philippe previous to the military ball, but the organizer of the ball decided to put these single American officers at the table with the single French officers. Philippe was polite; he asked to host the group. So that’s how we met, at a table at a French military ball in Speyer, Germany. I was the only woman he asked to dance with.”

“Very quickly I realized that she was the woman of my dreams,” Philippe said. “I figured that I better ask her pretty quickly to marry me before someone else managed to do it.”

“The interesting thing about their courtship is at the time, my father didn’t speak much English and my mother didn’t speak any French,” Irene added, saying that they actually communicated in German, which neither knew well either.

“Maybe that’s why it’s lasted so long,” Irene said with a laugh.

After a courtship of four months, Philippe asked Donna for her hand in marriage; she thought about it, but didn’t accept right away, as she was enjoying the courtship. Within a few months, Donna accepted his proposal, but said she wanted to have a long engagement due to her military career.

“I was really nervous about the idea of marrying a Frenchman and giving up my career as an officer,” Donna said.

After about a year and eight months, Donna and Philippe married.

As the relationship grew, so did the family. The Mallets eventually went on to have six children: Marie, followed by Irene, and brothers, Kevin, Xavier, Steven and Matthieu.

Donna joined a U.S. Army Reserve unit located in Stuttgart, Germany, which allowed her to follow Philippe’s career in the French Army. She continued serving in the U.S. Army Reserve and would eventually serve as a Foreign Area Officer for Western Europe, retiring as a civil affairs colonel. Philippe, meanwhile, served 37 years in the French Army before retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

Philippe and Donna have resided in Blacksburg, Virginia, since 2011, where Donna is a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Scholarship and Enrollment Officer at Virginia Tech. Prior to that, however, the Mallet family spent more than 30 years overseas during Philippe’s career.

The family never lived on a French military installation because it was too large. They lived in Rastatt, then Strasbourg, France, French Guyana, Grenoble, France, Reunion Island on the Indian Ocean, and finally, in Bordeaux, France.

“Growing up in Europe felt very normal to us,” Irene explained. “We always knew we were different because we were half American and half French - although my family likes to say they are fully American and fully French – but for us it was very normal to be bilingual and have two languages we speak fluently and to have one language we spoke at school and one we spoke at home, but we always knew we were a little different.”

Still, regardless of where they were in the world, Irene said the family somehow managed to find American friends to spend time with.

Irene met her best friend, Jade Chaudey, who is French, on Reunion Island where they both attended 10th grade. Though the two only physically spent a year together, they would keep in contact by writing long letters back and forth, talking for hours on the phone on weekends, and visiting each other whenever possible throughout the world.

Chaudey said she was able to enjoy uniquely American customs and holidays, like Thanksgiving, with the Mallets. Irene said her family would often pick a random summer day to celebrate Thanksgiving.

“I only have one sibling, so it was quite new to see how a large family lives together,” Chaudey said. “It was so lively; I was always welcome to stay for lunch or dinner. Her mum said to me: `there are already eight of us, one more or one less won't change much.’”

All of the children would eventually follow in their parent’s footsteps and serve in the U.S. military. Marie is now an Army Reserve officer in Seattle, Kevin is an Army transportation officer serving in Alaska, Xavier is an Army engineer officer serving in Hawaii, and Steven spent time as an enlisted Soldier.

Irene said her youngest brother Matthieu, who spent his first six years in Europe, is finishing high school in Virginia and cannot wait to enlist in the National Guard next summer to complete the cycle. All six children are fluent in both French and English.

For Irene, however, entering the military was not an automatic decision.

“As a cranky teenager, I think I was upset at the permanent changes of station we did all the time,” Irene said. “I thought it was difficult and I didn’t like the lifestyle. But I went to a military high school just South of Normandy in France, founded by Napoleon, Prytanée National Militaire, so joining that military school, even though I didn’t want to join the military myself later, was such a good experience and had such an impact on me that I was inspired to continue service.”

Mallet moved to the United States after finishing military high school in France, to experience more of the American way of life. She lived with her grandfather in Daytona Beach, Florida, where she also attended an extra year of high school to and was able to participate in uniquely American experiences, such as attending football games and homecoming dances. Next, she enrolled in ROTC while attending Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and became interested in aviation through the aeronautical program there.

When she was at Prytanée in France, an instructor encouraged her to apply to West Point, which she said she initially felt was a lost cause. However, after building her transcripts through attending high school and community college in the U.S., Irene applied and on her second try, she was accepted.

Though she has numerous pilots on both sides of her large military family, Irene is the first helicopter pilot. She said her decision to pursue aviation was finalized at West Point, where students were required to ruck march most places.

“This is a little embarrassing, but having to ruck everywhere, so slowly and so painfully, influenced my decision,” Irene said. “One day I just saw a Blackhawk fly across the Hudson River and I said to my peers, `did you see how fast that aircraft moved? Look at us walking!’ And that’s why I decided to fly.”

Becoming an officer and a pilot in the U.S. Army came at something of a personal cost to Irene. She was required to renounce her French citizenship. Mallet said this was somewhat difficult for her.

“You can have dual citizenship, but not as an officer,” said Mallet. “It was harder than I expected, because I always told myself it doesn't matter what documents or papers say, I feel very French, but it was still a little emotional to renounce my French citizenship.”

A highlight of her time being back in Europe, Irene said, was assisting her unit in participating in the Royal Black Hawk training with the French Army.

“I was able to facilitate communication between the French and 12th Combat Aviation Brigade,” Irene said. “That’s the work I love doing – connecting my two countries and being able to contribute and make missions go well.”

Irene said she loves to fly and the opportunity serving in the military has given both her and her siblings. She plans to make it a career, but when it’s over she said she does not know where she’ll call home.

She said she loves things about both places – in the U.S., the kindness and generosity of the people and the values they stand for – in France, the beauty and authenticity of the cities and towns, the feisty people, and the food and cheese.

“I think about it every day – where will I live when I leave the Army,” Irene said. “I can’t decide.”

Regardless of where she chooses, Irene Mallet will once again be returning home.