17-02-2025
Valérie André, first woman to fly a helicopter into combat zones, nicknamed ‘Madame Ventilator'
Valérie André, who has died aged 102, was a brain surgeon, parachutist and pioneering helicopter pilot – the first woman to fly helicopter missions in combat zones, and also the first woman to become a general in the French army.
She had taken flying lessons in the late 1930s and after graduating in neurosurgery from the University of Paris in 1948, she volunteered for the Paratrooper Medical Team serving in French-occupied Indochina, where the French were trying, ultimately without success, to repulse Viet Minh communist guerrillas.
She made 121 parachute jumps under combat conditions to treat wounded men on the ground before they were transported to hospital along bumpy roads, recalling that ground crews were astonished by 'a girl, of all things, falling out of the sky'. In early 1950, however, impressed by a demonstration in Saigon of a helicopter's manoeuvrability, she persuaded her superiors that it would be better to evacuate the wounded by air and went on to train as a helicopter rescue pilot.
'Madame Ventilator', as she was known, flew 129 helicopter missions in her Red Cross-marked Hiller 360 helicopter and rescued 165 soldiers, mainly French but also some Viet Minh. Braving enemy gunfire, including direct hits, she landed in the jungle or in paddy fields, picked up the wounded and flew them to hospitals, where she transformed into surgeon André, performing many life-saving operations. 'I weighed less than 45kg, which meant we could even carry an extra wounded man if necessary,' Valérie André recalled. 'She was a one-woman MASH unit,' a colleague added.
In 1953, after surviving a crash, she returned to France, where she established medical units at military helicopter bases. But in 1957 she was deployed to north Africa as chief medical officer and pilot of a squadron flying Sikorsky helicopters, ferrying French commando platoons to combat Algerian anti-colonial fighters.
She flew nearly 400 missions during the Algerian war which ended in 1962 when Algeria gained independence. She became 'Mme le général' in 1976, and altogether spent 33 years on active duty, becoming a commander of the Légion d'honneur and receiving seven citations for, and five awards of, the Croix de Guerre.
She retired in 1981 as Inspector General of the Army Medical Corps.
One of nine children, Valérie André was born on April 21 1922 in Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France near the German border. Her father was a music teacher at a boys' high school.
Her mother was determined that her four daughters would have the same opportunities as her five sons and Valérie was quick to set her own path in life: 'As a child, looking at airplanes in the sky, I used to say, 'I shall be a pilot.' Some time later, I asserted, 'I shall be a physician.' The only thing I had not thought of was to become a servicewoman.'
She gained her pilot's licence aged 16, after being taught to fly by a veteran of the First World War at a local airfield. While male trainees were paid for by the French state, however, she had to raise her own funds to pay for lessons and tutored students in French and maths.
In 1941 after the German invasion of Alsace, she fled first to to Clermont-Ferrand in southwestern France and later to Nazi-occupied Paris, where she enrolled at the Sorbonne after the Liberation.
At the end of the Algeria War, Valérie André returned to France to continue her career as a medical officer and at the time of her promotion to general was chief medical officer at the Villacoublay air base near Paris.
Throughout her career Valérie André promoted the role of women in the military, serving as a member of a presidential commission. 'I wanted women to be real combatants, not just air club pilots,' she said. Women are now able to serve in every role in the French military, including combat infantry and submarines.
Valérie André was appointed to the French National Order of Merit in 1987 and the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1999. She was a charter member (Member No 6) of the Whirly-Girls, an international association of female helicopter pilots founded in 1955.
She published two volumes of memoirs: Ici, Ventilateur! (1954) and Madame le général (1988), and was the subject of an English-language biography, Helicopter Heroine: Valérie André – Surgeon, Pioneer Rescue Pilot, and Her Courage Under Fire (2023) by Charles Morgan Evans.
In 1963 she married Alexis Santini, an air force colonel who had taught her to fly helicopters. He died in 1997. There were no children of the marriage.
Valérie André, born April 21 1922, died January 21 2025
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