(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Paris: Valerie Andre, the first French woman to be promoted to the rank of general in an armed forces career that saw her deployed as a doctor, parachutist and helicopter pilot died on Tuesday aged 102, the defence Ministry said.
"A very great lady has left us," defence spokeswoman Olivia Penichou said in a social media post.
Andre, who was born on April 21, 1922, obtained her parachutist diploma in 1948 and worked both as military doctor and a helicopter pilot.
"When I was 10 I told my parents that I would be an aviator," she once told an interviewer. "They thought I would outgrow it."
But she didn't and started taking flying lessons at 17 in her home city of Strasbourg, eastern France.
After joining the military, she was deployed in France's war in Indochina, where she stayed for four years, and then in Algeria, flying wounded combatants to hospital.
"You can learn anything," she said. "If you're motivated enough, everything seems easy. I think the boys found that I was probably an OK pilot."
In 1976, she was promoted to general physician in the health service of the armed forces -- an equivalent rank to general -- the first time a woman had climbed this high in France's military hierarchy.
Not everybody in the military was happy about a woman rising this far. "There was opposition. It wasn't the done thing. But then suddenly it was. Of course it was exhilarating," she said.
Five years later, she received a third star, taking her to the rank of Major-General.
By the time she retired in 1981, Andre had won several decorations including the Cross of War, totalled 4,200 flying hours, undertaken more than 100 medical evacuations and flown 496 combat missions.
"I've had an extraordinary life," she said.
Andre campaigned for more women to be promoted in the armed forces -- during her service time as well as later -- helping to place the French military among the world's armies employing the most women.
In 2022, the Paris heliport in the city's southwest was named after her.
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