Valerie Andre, a French Army captain, doctor and helicopter pilot, is shown in front of her helicopter in Tonkin, in northern Indochina, July 30, 1952. Valerie Andre, a French aviator and parachutist who became the first woman to become a general officer in France, has died. She was 102. (AP Photo/AJE, File)

 

 

PARIS (AP) — Valérie André, a French aviator and parachutist who became the first woman to become a general officer in France, has died. She was 102.

 

France’s ministry of armies and the French presidency said André died on Jan. 21.

 

André, who had a medicine degree and flew for the first time as a teenager, combined her two passions and became a military doctor, serving in Indochina and later in Algeria.

 

“Despite the danger, exhaustion, harsh conditions, and the life-or-death pressure that permeated this environment - or perhaps precisely because of these challenges - Valérie André developed a passion for this extreme mission, staying as close as possible to the soldiers she served,” the French presidency said.

 

“To support them even more effectively, she trained as a helicopter pilot. Her flight log quickly filled with hundreds of casualty evacuations, first in the Vietnamese theater and later in Algeria.”

 

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RIP General.