Valérie André
Template:Infobox Personnalité militaire
Valérie André, born on April 21, 1922 in Strasbourg) is a veteran of the French resistance, a neurosurgeon, an aviator and the first female member of the military to achieve the rank of General Officer, in 1976, as Physician General. In 1981, she was promoted to Inspector General of Medicine. A helicopter pilot, she is the first woman to have piloted a helicopter in a combat zone. She is also a founding member of l’Académie nationale de l'air et de l'espace. [1]
As a member of the military, she is not addressed as "Madame la Générale" (a term reserved for spouses of generals) but as "General".[2]
She started as a Medical Captain in Indochina in 1948, where she completed 129 war missions[3]. While in Indochina, she realized that the most difficult part of her duties was retrieving the wounded, who were often trapped in the jungle. She returned to France to learn how to pilot a helicopter, then flew one to Indochina. She piloted 65 helicopter missions into the jungle and rescued 150 soldiers, and on two occasions completed parachute jumps to treat wounded soldiers who needed immediate surgery.[4]
She continued in Algeria as a Medical Commander in 1960, where she completed 365 war missions. She rose to the rank of Medical Lieutenant Colonel in 1965 then to Medical Colonel in 1970. She had a total of 3200 flight hours, and received 7 citations of the croix de guerre.
She has written two collections of memoirs : Ici, Ventilateur! Extraits d'un carnet de vol. (Calmann-Lévy, 1954) and Madame le général (Perrin, 1988).
She is one of eight women to hold the Grand-croix (Great Cross) rank in the Legion of Honour, with Germaine Tillion, Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz , Jacqueline de Romilly, Simone Rozès, Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Yvette Farnoux et Gilberte Champion. She is the aunt of politician André Santini.
Decorations
- Knight of the Legion of Honour on February 25, 1953. She was promoted to the rank of Grand-croix of the Legion of Honour on December 19, 1999.
- Grand-croix of the Ordre National du Mérite in 1987, the first woman to receive this distinction.
- Croix de guerre 39/45 with 7 citations.
- Croix de guerre des Théâtres d'opérations extérieures
- Médaille de la Valeur Militaire.
- Médaille commémorative d’Indochine,
- Médaille de l'Aéronautique,
- Médaille du Combattant Volontaire (1944),
- Médaille de Vermeil du service de santé.
- Grande Médaille d'or du l'Aéro-club de France
Foreign decorations
- Legion of Merit (USA),
- National Order of Vietnam, and Cross of Valour
References
- ^ "Valerie Andre". Société d'aviation de la Gruyère. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
- ^ http://www.defense.gouv.fr/air/base/breves/2010/fevrier/vol_simule_pour_le_general_valerie_andre
- ^ http://lemamouth.blogspot.com/2010/09/un-brevet-en-or-massif.html
- ^ "Captain Valerie Andre: First Woman to Pilot a Helicopter in a Combat Zone". Daytips. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
