First Lady Melania Trump to visit Fort Rucker

FORT RUCKER, Ala. (WTVY) - The Home of Army Aviation is getting a pair of very special guests later this week.

First Lady Melania Trump, along with Second Lady Usha Vance, will be traveling to the Wiregrass on Thursday to visit military families at Fort Rucker in advance of Thanksgiving.

The visit marks a rare occurrence where a member of the first and/or second families have at any point visited the southeast Alabama Army post.

Harry Truman visited the base, then known as Camp Rucker, during World War II, though this was prior to him becoming vice president and later president; and former vice president Al Gore was assigned to Fort Rucker as a soldier prior to becoming the vice president under Bill Clinton.

While not visiting the base itself, President Ronald Reagan met with members of the U.S. Precision Helicopter Team based out of Fort Rucker during his official visit to Dothan in 1986, and the historic Army One helicopter flown in by Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie and Lyndon B. Johnson is displayed at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum located at the post, though none of those four have ever physically visited.

This visit comes just one month after Fort Rucker was designated as the U.S. Army’s new Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Autonomy Center of Excellence through the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM).

According to information sent from the Office of the First Lady, the visit is scheduled for around 10 a.m., though the time is subject to change.

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