“Helicopter Heroine” by Charles Morgan Evans tells the story of the primary girl to fly a helicopter in fight
11 min read
Valérie André is without doubt one of the nice army aviators of the 20 th century. She was the primary girl to fly a helicopter in fight and one of many first three helicopter medevac pilots.
Flying greater than 150 helicopter rescue missions throughout the French battle in Indochina (together with at Dien Bien Phu), and parachuting into the sector twice, André was a trailblazer, a pioneer of flying helicopters in fight and an innovator of battlefield drugs, who risked her life to deal with the wounded, whether or not they have been French or Vietnamese, whether or not they have been buddy, civilian, or foe. Aviation historian Charles Morgan Evans tells her story with verve and pathos.
André was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1922. From an early age, she wished to fly, however as a lady, she confronted challenges. Whereas boys might obtain government-funded flight classes, André needed to pay for hers by tutoring. Throughout World Struggle II, she left Strasbourg in opposition to German prohibitions as a way to examine drugs in Paris, the place she accomplished her research beneath risk of arrest by the Gestapo.
Assigned to a military hospital in Saigon in French Indochina within the late Forties, André educated as a neurosurgeon, performing 100 procedures monthly. When the French medical corps developed cellular surgical items to be air-dropped into army outposts, she rapidly volunteered, after which when the service acquired just a few primitive helicopters, she volunteered for that, which meant studying to fly helicopters in fight.
Flying by means of bullets and bombs, fatigue, parasitic sickness, and mechanical points with the helicopters— to not point out the French military’s prejudice in opposition to a feminine pilot and surgeon—André nonetheless grew to become a legend in Indochina. The Vietnamese referred to as her “the lady who comes down from the sky” and “Mrs. Ventilator.” On at some point in December 1951, she flew her chopper into the tooth of antiaircraft fireplace to a besieged base, the place she carried out emergency mind surgical procedures, then flew the wounded to hospitals in Hanoi, two at a time.
After Indochina, she continued to be an innovator in army aviation and drugs in addition to an advocate for ladies’s integration into the French army. Within the early Sixties, she flew one other 236 missions in Algeria. In 1975, she grew to become the primary feminine basic within the French military, and at her retirement, she had flown practically 500 fight missions, logged 4,000 hours in helicopters, and gained the Croix de Guerre 5 instances, the Cross of Navy Valor twice, and the Grand Cross of the Nationwide Order of Advantage.
André, who simply turned 100 in 2022, lives close to Paris. This e-book relies on a sequence of creator interviews together with her and complete analysis from different sources.
Valérie André is without doubt one of the nice army aviators of the 20 th century. She was the primary girl to fly a helicopter in fight and one of many first three helicopter medevac pilots.
Flying greater than 150 helicopter rescue missions throughout the French battle in Indochina (together with at Dien Bien Phu), and parachuting into the sector twice, André was a trailblazer, a pioneer of flying helicopters in fight and an innovator of battlefield drugs, who risked her life to deal with the wounded, whether or not they have been French or Vietnamese, whether or not they have been buddy, civilian, or foe. Aviation historian Charles Morgan Evans tells her story with verve and pathos.
André was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1922. From an early age, she wished to fly, however as a lady, she confronted challenges. Whereas boys might obtain government-funded flight classes, André needed to pay for hers by tutoring. Throughout World Struggle II, she left Strasbourg in opposition to German prohibitions as a way to examine drugs in Paris, the place she accomplished her research beneath risk of arrest by the Gestapo.
Assigned to a military hospital in Saigon in French Indochina within the late Forties, André educated as a neurosurgeon, performing 100 procedures monthly. When the French medical corps developed cellular surgical items to be air-dropped into army outposts, she rapidly volunteered, after which when the service acquired just a few primitive helicopters, she volunteered for that, which meant studying to fly helicopters in fight.
Flying by means of bullets and bombs, fatigue, parasitic sickness, and mechanical points with the helicopters— to not point out the French military’s prejudice in opposition to a feminine pilot and surgeon—André nonetheless grew to become a legend in Indochina. The Vietnamese referred to as her “the lady who comes down from the sky” and “Mrs. Ventilator.” On at some point in December 1951, she flew her chopper into the tooth of antiaircraft fireplace to a besieged base, the place she carried out emergency mind surgical procedures, then flew the wounded to hospitals in Hanoi, two at a time.
After Indochina, she continued to be an innovator in army aviation and drugs in addition to an advocate for ladies’s integration into the French army. Within the early Sixties, she flew one other 236 missions in Algeria. In 1975, she grew to become the primary feminine basic within the French military, and at her retirement, she had flown practically 500 fight missions, logged 4,000 hours in helicopters, and gained the Croix de Guerre 5 instances, the Cross of Navy Valor twice, and the Grand Cross of the Nationwide Order of Advantage.
André, who simply turned 100 in 2022, lives close to Paris. This e-book relies on a sequence of creator interviews together with her and complete analysis from different sources.
Charles M. Evans is the founding curator of the Hiller Air Museum in Redwood Metropolis, California. He has written about aviation historical past for such publications as American Historical past, Aviation, and Civil Struggle Instances Illustrated and is creator of Struggle of the Aeronauts: A Historical past of Ballooning within the Civil Struggle (Stackpole, 2002).
Evans first realized of Valerie Andre’s story on the Hiller Museum. She flew Hiller 360 helicopters in Vietnam, alongside her future husband, Alexis Santini, France’s first army helicopter rescue pilot. From 1951 to 1953, Valerie Andre flew 128 rescue missions, rescuing 168 wounded troopers in a few of the most hazardous fight zones in Vietnam. Valerie later served in Algeria as a medical rescue pilot, and throughout the Sixties grew to become an advocate for together with extra ladies within the French army medical corps. In 1976, Valerie Andre grew to become the primary girl promoted to the rank of basic within the French Military. She turned 100 years previous in 2022.
Right here’s an excerpt from Helicopter Heroine:
Close to Nam Dinh, Northern Vietnam, November 16, 1952
The warmth contained in the fishbowl cockpit was insufferable, however the pilot—her left hand firmly greedy an overhead management stick—paid little consideration to it. Her focus was on her mission and protecting her cantankerous Hiller helicopter airborne.
Her vacation spot was one of many small French military outposts that have been concentrated alongside the Crimson River simply previous Nam Dinh. A younger Vietnamese soldier with a crucial head wound wanted instant transport again to Hanoi. With minutes to go earlier than touchdown, she radioed into air visitors management in Hanoi to report her place. She famous that her fighter escorts had not but made contact.
No less than the Viet Minh haven’t any antiaircraft weapons, she thought to herself.
The sky over Tonkin was clear and blue, giving little clue to the battle going down two thousand ft under. However on the bottom, the pilot and her machine have been susceptible targets, and she or he totally realized the hazard she was flying into. Her pulse quickened as she noticed her landmark by the river. The outpost was simply forward.
Lengthy days and harmful missions weren’t new experiences for this pilot. She had been in Vietnam for 5 years, serving as a surgeon in army hospitals. For 5 years, the pilot’s survival had relied on fixed vigilance, fast reflexes, intelligence—and luck. She didn’t want to push that luck and regarded once more for her escorts.
To her aid, the fighter pilots arrived and carried out a flyby previous her slower-moving helicopter. She admired the fighter pilots and envied the pace of their plane She might all the time rely on the Viet Minh hiding within the thick vegetation to observe each transfer she made and to fireside on her every time they might. That was why the fighter planes have been referred to as into motion and despatched into the world earlier than the unarmed helicopter would land. The escorting fighter pilots knew what she anticipated of them.
They got here in at excessive pace and low altitude, laying down a cruel sample of machine-gun fireplace that struck deep into the thick vegetation surrounding the outpost. At present it was solely a strafing run. On different missions, it may be essential to drop napalm. Their barrage solely lasted a minute or so, but it surely was sufficient to maintain the enemy at bay. With their work completed, the fighters cut up off to go again to Hanoi.
She had already transported 4 different wounded males to Hanoi that day, and fatigue was setting in. Beneath was the touchdown zone, crudely marked out with linen sheets and scraps of wooden secured by stakes and stones to the bottom. Evacuations at distant outposts have been all the time carried out rapidly to keep away from reducing energy to the engine. It wasn’t all the time a certain wager that the Hiller’s engine would begin once more after an entire shutdown. One factor was certain, nonetheless. The Viet Minh would quickly regroup.
The helicopter’s rotor blades slowed because the engine wound right down to an idle. The lads from the outpost knew to not transfer till the plane was on the bottom. The pilot stepped out from the cockpit as a discipline medic and two different troopers approached in a crouching run bearing the wounded man on a stretcher.
“Bullet within the head,” the medic shouted to her above the din of the engine and nonetheless swishing rotors. “He’s in a coma and been full of Sedol.”
The wounded man’s face was ashen. The medics had wrapped the highest of his head in linen gauze. The bandage was already blood-soaked, and his wound continued to seep. She regarded the affected person over fastidiously. He was in all probability not even twenty. He was certainly one of many Vietnamese now preventing alongside the French in opposition to different Vietnamese. This soldier was smaller than a typical Frenchman however considerably stocky with broad shoulders.
“Might you tie up his palms?” she requested. “I would like it.”
The pilot knew all too effectively from expertise by no means to underestimate what might occur whereas transferring a wounded affected person by air—even one as severely injured as this younger Vietnamese soldier. The medic nodded to one of many males bearing the stretcher, and he produced a small size of twine.
With the comatose soldier’s palms now secured, they started transferring the affected person towards one of many side-mounted stretchers hooked up to the helicopter. Nobody might shake the sense that enemy eyes and weapons have been educated on them. They have been all targets and the specter of weapons fireplace erupting at any second was very actual.
As soon as the troopers had positioned the affected person beneath the Plexiglas faring enclosing the helicopter’s stretcher, the pilot twisted the throttle to rev the helicopter’s engine for liftoff. Hanoi was lower than a half hour away at full energy, however the helicopter’s engine all the time labored within the sweltering tropical environment.
Lastly, the Hiller achieved a comparatively protected altitude and pushed alongside at its regular cruising pace of seventy miles per hour. She retraced her flight alongside the banks of the Crimson River main again to Hanoi. The pilot exhaled deeply, flexed her palms, and stretched a bit to launch the strain in her neck and shoulders.
However her aid was short-lived. She glanced again at her affected person and noticed to her horror that he was regaining consciousness.
Merde, she thought. Not sufficient Sedol!
The soldier awoke in wild spasms, terrified at discovering himself within the air. Trying down, the pilot might see the primal concern in his eyes. Alarmed, she watched as the person clenched his jaw and fought his restraints, summoning virtually supernatural power to retake his freedom regardless of being greater than a thousand ft above the bottom.
She might see that the affected person had slipped freed from his restraints and that he was struggling to achieve into the cockpit. His determined palms thrust contained in the cabin, grabbing on the helicopter’s floor-mounted foot controls. The pilot’s makes an attempt to calm the soldier went unheard as he clutched and clawed at her ft. The plane pitched wildly, perilously uncontrolled, as she fought the crazed soldier and wrestled with the Hiller.
It was a nightmare state of affairs. She coolly reviewed her selections as she fought for her life and his. She might have immobilized him with a kick, however that will in all probability have killed him. Not an choice for a physician who had taken the Hippocratic oath. And so she desperately battled together with her ft, making an attempt to push the frantic soldier away from the controls and again into his litter.
His clutching on the foot controls might simply have precipitated the Hiller to spin, disorienting the pilot and resulting in a deadly crash. Had he succeeded in jarring her arm and triggering a “mast bump,” a lack of management, the helicopter would seemingly have plummeted. And so she fought for time, for the minutes it could take to get them to security.
Her efforts paid off. As abruptly as the person had risen from his catatonic state, his face froze, his physique stiffened, and he went limp. He fell again into his coma and mercifully right into a deep sleep. Respiration closely and with nice effort, she introduced the helicopter again beneath management. Her physique, jolted by adrenaline, vibrated like a tuning fork. Minutes later, they made it to the outskirts of Hanoi, not removed from the touchdown zone at Lannesan Hospital.
Gently putting the helicopter onto the immaculately groomed hospital touchdown zone, the pilot was met by medics who offloaded the younger Vietnamese soldier and rushed him inside for surgical procedure. She would later be taught that the younger man had survived. Together with her mission full, she was capable of shut the helicopter down. Her khaki coveralls have been drenched in sweat, and she or he seen that the soldier had undone her bootlaces.
Leaning in opposition to the aspect of her helicopter, she slowly lowered herself to the bottom whereas pulling a cigarette and a lighter from her pockets. She stared blankly forward as she dragged deeply and exhaled a protracted stream of smoke. For a brief second, she might chill out.
It had been a punishing day. This was no place for a lady.
***
The excerpt from Helicopter Heroine – Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Braveness Beneath Hearth by Charles Morgan Evans ( 2023) is printed with permission of Stackpole Books.
