Geneviève de Galard

Geneviève de Galard was born and raised in Paris, France, to a family with a long military background. Her father died when she was nine years old, and on the eve of World War II, the family evacuated from Paris to Toulouse. They returned to the capital in the summer of 1943. Geneviève took English classes at the Sorbonne and began studying for a nursing degree, which she completed in 1950. Two years later, wanting travel and adventure, she qualified for service with the French Air Force. In 1953, at her request, she was sent to Indochina (now Vietnam) during the war between France and the Viet Minh Communists. She was stationed in Hanoi and oversaw medical evacuations by air from Pleiku Airport. Starting in January 1954, she participated in evacuations of French wounded from the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. On March 28, 1954, she and her crew landed in Dien Bien Phu. The aircraft was badly damaged and had to be abandoned as the Viet Minh destroyed the runway. She volunteered to stay and serve in the base field hospital, the only woman there. She worked under increasingly desperate conditions and rising casualties as the Viet Minh, who occupied the highlands around Dien Bien Phu, bombarded their position and prevented supplies and reinforcements from arriving. The garrison was trapped and overrun after a two-month siege. Most of the French forces surrendered; some escaped to Laos. Geneviève de Galard was awarded the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. She was lionized as a heroine by the French public, appeared several times on the cover of Paris Match, and made a triumphant visit to the United States. In 1956, she married Colonel John Heaulme, with whom she had three children. She wrote her autobiography, Une femme à Dien Bien Phu (translated in English as Angel of Dien Bien Phu), first published in 2003.