PARIS — Valérie André, a French aviator and parachutist who grew to become the primary lady to grow to be a common officer in France, has died. She was 102.
France’s ministry of armies and the French presidency mentioned André died on Jan. 21.
André, who had a drugs diploma and flew for the primary time as a teen, mixed her two passions and have become a army physician, serving in Indochina and later in Algeria.
“Regardless of the hazard, exhaustion, harsh situations, and the life-or-death strain that permeated this surroundings – or maybe exactly due to these challenges – Valérie André developed a ardour for this excessive mission, staying as shut as doable to the troopers she served,” the French presidency mentioned.
“To help them much more successfully, she educated as a helicopter pilot. Her flight log shortly full of lots of of casualty evacuations, first within the Vietnamese theater and later in Algeria.”
Often called “Madame Ventilator,” she left for the conflict in the course of the French occupation of Indochina as a part of the expeditionary corps, serving as a medical captain.
Initially assigned to the My Tho hospital in 1949, she later grew to become a neurosurgery assistant in Saigon. It was right now that she made her first army parachute jumps to assist the wounded in essentially the most remoted areas.
“There aren’t any perilous missions, solely missions that should be achieved in any respect prices, as a result of human life is at stake,” she was quoted as saying in an announcement by the ministry of armies.
On the finish of the Algeria Battle, André returned to France to proceed her profession as a medical officer and championed the position of ladies within the army, paving the best way for his or her larger inclusion.
She was the primary lady in France to succeed in the rank of common officer, finally sporting the three stars of Inspector Common of the Military Medical Corps.
