By Diana Vance
For The Monroe Times
Editor's note: Diana Vance, Monroe, said she dedicated this story to all the "angels" in Green County, be they a nurse or a medic, working or retired, who spend much of their lives caring for the sick and the wounded.
Twenty-nine-year-old Genevieve de Galard was a flight nurse for the French Air Force. She was posted to French Indochina at her own request in May 1953 in the middle of the war between French forces and the Viet Minh in northeast Vietnam.
Serving as a flight nurse, she was stationed in Hanoi and, beginning in January 1954, she flew on casualty evacuation flights from the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Genevieve was serving her second tour of duty in French Indochina when an enemy shell put her plane out of action at Dien Bien Phu. After it was decided her plane would never fly again, she went underground to the dispensaries where she often assisted in 25 operations a day.
Volunteering to work in the field hospital, she was the only female nurse among 11,000 soldiers. Her hard work and willingness to tackle even the most gruesome tasks won over the men on the medical staff.
A nurse's dress was utterly wrong in the conditions at Dien Bien Phu and so the soldiers put together a semblance of a uniform for her. She wore camouflage trousers, basketball shoes and a t-shirt. She did her best in the very unsanitary conditions - comforting those about to die and trying to keep up morale in the face of mounting casualties.
Positioning the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu was a major mistake by the French. It was in a valley, and the Vietnamese positioned their massive amounts of artillery, more than the French thought they had, on the hills surrounding the valley where the French fortress was. The Vietnamese outnumbered the French 5-to-1 and were shooting high explosive shells down on them.
Genevieve worked with surgeons and served as a front-line combat medic in one of the bloodiest battles in French military history. She took on any job they asked of her - triaging the wounded as they were brought to the hospital, assisting on surgeries, often 25 per day, taking on emergency battlefield first aid and carrying severely wounded men back to the hospital on stretchers.
As the situation was becoming more disastrous, she continued to work through miserable heat and exhaustion while gunfire and mortars blasted around her. She never stopped soothing dying men and healing those she could.
On May 8, 1954 a massive attack by the Viet Minh took place. The French were overrun, but they fought to the very last. Over half the soldiers were killed in this battle. Genevieve and what remained of the garrison were now prisoners of war.
Genevieve continued to attend to the wounded, and when the Viet Minh put her in a cell alone, she wrote letters to the wounded. When she was released she went directly back to the wounded. After three weeks in captivity, she was forcibly evacuated against her will by the French high command in a POW transfer.
She returned home to France a heroine, and they called her "The Angel of Dien Bien Phu." She quickly became a media sensation. The commander at Dien Bien Phu awarded her the Knight's Cross of the Legion d'Honeur, and the commander of the paratroopers awarded her the Croix de Guerre.
In the United States, Congresswoman Frances Bolton urged Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to invite her to the United States. She came, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Newspapers across the United States carried the story of what she did in Dien Bien Phu, and when a parade down Broadway was held in her honor, 250,000 spectators attended. The people loved her, but she never considered herself as a heroine. In her eyes, she was just doing her job.
For The Monroe Times
Editor's note: Diana Vance, Monroe, said she dedicated this story to all the "angels" in Green County, be they a nurse or a medic, working or retired, who spend much of their lives caring for the sick and the wounded.
Twenty-nine-year-old Genevieve de Galard was a flight nurse for the French Air Force. She was posted to French Indochina at her own request in May 1953 in the middle of the war between French forces and the Viet Minh in northeast Vietnam.
Serving as a flight nurse, she was stationed in Hanoi and, beginning in January 1954, she flew on casualty evacuation flights from the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Genevieve was serving her second tour of duty in French Indochina when an enemy shell put her plane out of action at Dien Bien Phu. After it was decided her plane would never fly again, she went underground to the dispensaries where she often assisted in 25 operations a day.
Volunteering to work in the field hospital, she was the only female nurse among 11,000 soldiers. Her hard work and willingness to tackle even the most gruesome tasks won over the men on the medical staff.
A nurse's dress was utterly wrong in the conditions at Dien Bien Phu and so the soldiers put together a semblance of a uniform for her. She wore camouflage trousers, basketball shoes and a t-shirt. She did her best in the very unsanitary conditions - comforting those about to die and trying to keep up morale in the face of mounting casualties.
Positioning the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu was a major mistake by the French. It was in a valley, and the Vietnamese positioned their massive amounts of artillery, more than the French thought they had, on the hills surrounding the valley where the French fortress was. The Vietnamese outnumbered the French 5-to-1 and were shooting high explosive shells down on them.
Genevieve worked with surgeons and served as a front-line combat medic in one of the bloodiest battles in French military history. She took on any job they asked of her - triaging the wounded as they were brought to the hospital, assisting on surgeries, often 25 per day, taking on emergency battlefield first aid and carrying severely wounded men back to the hospital on stretchers.
As the situation was becoming more disastrous, she continued to work through miserable heat and exhaustion while gunfire and mortars blasted around her. She never stopped soothing dying men and healing those she could.
On May 8, 1954 a massive attack by the Viet Minh took place. The French were overrun, but they fought to the very last. Over half the soldiers were killed in this battle. Genevieve and what remained of the garrison were now prisoners of war.
Genevieve continued to attend to the wounded, and when the Viet Minh put her in a cell alone, she wrote letters to the wounded. When she was released she went directly back to the wounded. After three weeks in captivity, she was forcibly evacuated against her will by the French high command in a POW transfer.
She returned home to France a heroine, and they called her "The Angel of Dien Bien Phu." She quickly became a media sensation. The commander at Dien Bien Phu awarded her the Knight's Cross of the Legion d'Honeur, and the commander of the paratroopers awarded her the Croix de Guerre.
In the United States, Congresswoman Frances Bolton urged Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to invite her to the United States. She came, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Newspapers across the United States carried the story of what she did in Dien Bien Phu, and when a parade down Broadway was held in her honor, 250,000 spectators attended. The people loved her, but she never considered herself as a heroine. In her eyes, she was just doing her job.
