Valerie Andre was 10 years previous in 1932 when, armed with a greeting bouquet, she congratulated the hero’s aviator Maryse Hilsz On the Strasbourg airport in France.
She is already dedicated to turning into a physician, an formidable profession for a younger woman on the time. However she was so warmly accepted when she launched the flowers of Mrs. Hilsh, who had simply completed a document flight between Paris and Saigon that she was dedicated to a different nice objective: he determined to change into a pilot on an airplane.
Valerie Andre not solely pursues each professions; She was thriving in them. She turned a cerebral surgeon, a parachutist and a helicopter pilot, who was stated to be the primary lady to fly rescue missions in fight areas for each army power. She was additionally the primary Frenchman to be declared a normal and was a 5 -time winner in Croix de Guerre, for braveness in Indochina and Algeria.
Dr. Andre died on January 21 in Issi-Le-Mulino, a suburb of Paris. She was 102.
“It began with the dream of a 10-year-old woman flying like a star,” stated Olivia Penny, a spokesman for the French Ministry of Protection, within the declaration of loss of life on social media. “She works with a dedication to make sure that the armed forces open to girls specialties closed like these of the fighter pilot.”
The announcement didn’t say whether or not any instant members of the family had survived.
In 120 Fight Missions within the Early Nineteen Fifties within the Dense Jungles and Soggy Rice Paddies of Indochina, The place the French Had been Attempting Success To Repulse Communist Guerrillas, Dr. The André Flew 168 Wounded Troopers from the Battlefields to Hospitals in Hanoi – Together with Enemy Troopers, when there was room on each stretchers mounted on its one -seat chop.
Later, she flew 365 missions in battle areas in North Africa, the place Algerians had been in search of independence from France. In 1976, she was promoted to Basic, the primary lady to be raised to this rank within the French military.
However whereas her heroism was celebrated at dwelling and he or she wrote two memoirs in French, her feats weren’t so well-known overseas – at the least till just lately.
It was the topic of a documentary of 2021. “Madame Le Basic” and of the English-language e-book “Helicopter Heroine: Valery Andre-surgeon, Pioneer Rescue Pilot and her braveness beneath fireplace”, by Charles Evans, Aviation, revealed in 2023 S
Valerie Colin Andre was born on April 21, 1922 in Strasbourg, within the Elsass area in northeastern France close to the German border. Her father teaches music at highschool for boys. Her mom inspired her 4 daughters to pursue the identical increased schooling alternatives that had been obtainable to her 5 sons.
Dr. Andre would encourage this program all through his profession.
“I believed each lady had the chance to decide on her personal life, even when that alternative required extra persistence than that of a person,” quoted Mr. Evans.
When she decides to take pleasure in her passions for each medication and aviation, she trains French and arithmetic college students to pay for flying classes. She obtained her pilot’s license when she was 16 years previous.
Two years later, in 1940, the Germans invaded. She escaped from Alsas-first in southwestern France, the place the College of Strasbourg fell aside, after which to the occupied by Nazi Paris, the place he continued her research within the Sorbonne.
Whereas most ladies finding out medication in France on the time had been rejected in pediatrics, gynecology or public well being, it offers with neurology. She obtained a medical diploma in 1948, when she was 26 years previous.
“On the finish of my medical analysis Vertical In 2017, he prompt that she be part of the military.
Whereas working as a surgeon, she witnessed an illustration of a helicopter in Saigon in early 1950 and satisfied her superiors that the evacuation of the wounded from the battle areas in hospitals from Choper can be higher than the parachuting she did to make it to deal with them on the bottom. She later advised Smithsonian Information Service that the troopers had been struck once they noticed “a lady, of all issues falling from the sky.”
She returned to France for preliminary coaching, present process extra schooling in Vietnam in early this October, after which started commanding her first flights to Medevac helicopter in early 1952.
In line with the Nationwide Museum of Air and House on the Smithsonian establishment, it was one of many first 12 girls on the earth to obtain a helicopter pilot score, and the primary lady to fly a helicopter in fight areas.
In 1953, after surviving in a crash, she doubled again to France, the place he created medical models of army helport. In 1957, it was situated in Algeria, the place it registered lots of of rescue missions earlier than returning in 1962.
As a military normal and a member of the Presidential Committee, she lobbies relentlessly to present girls extra lively within the army. She retired in 1981 as a normal inspector of drugs.
Earlier than transferring to a retirement dwelling to Isi-Lie-Mulino, which occurs close to the Paris helicopter, Dr. Andre lived on the highest ground of a six-storey constructing close by.
“I wished a variety of heaven,” she stated.
As she was a small lady – she weighed lower than 100 kilos – a helicopter with pink crossed indicators may maintain a stretcher on any slider. Earlier than flying Solo, she was skilled by Air Power Colonel Alexis Santini. In 1963, she married him.
Nicely, earlier than he died in 1997, she overtook him.
