Eli Alva Helmick
Eli Alva Helmick was a United States Army officer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He served in World War I, among other conflicts, and received the Distinguished Service Medal.
Military career
Helmick was born in Quaker, Indiana on September 23, 1863. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in June 1888. Among his classmates there were several men who would, like Helmick himself, eventually attain the rank of general officer, such as James W. McAndrew, William M. Morrow, William Robert Dashiell, Robert Lee Howze, Peter Charles Harris, Peyton C. March, Henry Jervey, William Voorhees Judson, John Louis Hayden, Edward Anderson, William H. Hart, Charles Aloysius Hedekin and William S. Peirce.Helmick was commissioned into the 11th [Infantry Regiment |11th Infantry Regiment] on June 11, 1888, and he did frontier duty from 1888 to 1892. He was serving in Idaho when the labor union riots in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, occurred from September to November 1892. He served on duty at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and he then worked as a professor of Military Science and Tactics at Hillsdale College from 1894 through 1896. Helmick commanded Fort Reno from 1898 to 1899.
Helmick participated in the Spanish–American War, serving from 1899 to 1901 as a provost marshal and inspector of the Cuban Rural Guard, and receiving a Silver Star for his efforts. He then went to the Philippines, commanding a battalion on Mindanao in 1902 against the Moros during the Moro Rebellion. After returning to the U.S., Helmick did recruiting duty in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1903 to 1906, and he commanded Fort Liscum from 1906 to 1907. He graduated from the United States Army Command and [General Staff College|School of the Line] in 1909, from the United States Army War College in 1910. Helmick then performed Mexican Border War service along the U.S. border with Mexico from 1915 to 1916.
Helmick served during World War I, and was promoted to major general on August 8, 1918. He commanded the 8th Division from September to November 1918 and afterward commanded Base Section Number Five, Service of Supply in Brest, France. He received the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his service in Brest. The citation for the medal reads:
Helmick joined the General Staff on August 24, 1919, and he served as the Chief of Staff of the Central Department from August 23, 1919, to May 10, 1921. In 1920, he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Kansas State Agricultural College. He subsequently became inspector general and was reappointed to the position on November 7, 1925. Helmick retired on September 27, 1927.
Helmick lived in Honolulu in retirement. He died on January 13, 1945, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.