News Summary

Author: Sam Roberts
Published on: 05/02/2025 | 00:00:00

AI Summary:
Valérie André was the first woman to fly rescue missions in a combat zone, in Indochina and Algeria. She was also the first Frenchwoman to become an army general. In 120 combat missions in the early 1950s in the dense jungles and soggy rice paddies of Indochina, Dr. André flew 168 wounded soldiers from the battlefields to hospitals in Hanoi. In 1976 she was promoted to general, the first woman to be elevated to that rank in the French Army. The Times decides who gets an obituary. Dr. André taught students in French and math to pay for flying lessons. She received her pilot’s license when she was 16. Two years later, in 1940, the Germans invaded. When she decided to indulge her passions for both medicine and aviation, she tutored students. She was one of the first 12 women in the world to receive a helicopter pilot rating. In 1953, after surviving a crash, she doubled back to France. As the army’s physician general, she lobbied indefatigably to grant women a more active role in the military.

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