Geneviève de Galard

Genevieve de Galard (born April 21, 1925) is a French nurse who received the name of the "Angel of Dien Bien Phu" during the French war in Indochina.

Genevieve de Galard was born in the south of France. The Second World War forced her family to move from Paris to Toulouse.

Galard passed the state exam to become a nurse and eventually became a flight nurse for the French Air Force. She was posted to French Indochina by her own request and arrived there in May 1953, in a middle of the war between French forces and the Vietminh.

Galard was stationed in Hanoi and flew in casualty evacuation flights from Pleiku. After January 1954 she was in the flights that evacuated casualties from the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Her first patients were mainly soldiers who suffered from diseases but after mid-March most of them were battle casualties. Sometimes Red Cross planes had to land in a middle of Vietminh artillery barrage.

On March 27 1954, when a Red Cross C-47 with Galard aboard tried to land at night on the short runway of Dien Bien Phu, the landing overshot and the plane's left engine was seriously damaged. The plane mechanics could not repair it in field conditions. The plane was stranded and at daylight Vietminh artillery destroyed it as well the runway beyond repair.

Galard went to a field hospital under command of doctor Paul Grauwin and volunteered her services as a nurse. Although the men of the medical staff were initially apprehensive - she was the only woman in the base - they eventually made accommodations for her. They also arranged a semblance of uniform; camouflage overalls, trousers, basketball shoes, and a t-shirt. Galard did her best in very unsanitary conditions, comforting those about to die and trying to keep up morale in the face of the mounting casualties. Many of the men later complimented her efforts.

On the 29th of April 1954 Genevieve de Galard was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Légion d´Honneur and the Croix de Guerre. It was presented to her by the commander of Dien Bien Phu, General de Castries. The following day, during the celebration of the French Foreign Legion's annual "Camerone", De Galard was made an honorary "Legionnaire de 1ère classe" alongside Lieutenant Colonel Marcel Bigeard, the commander of the 6th Colonial Parachute Battalion.

French troops at Dien Bien Phu finally capitulated on May 7. However, the Vietminh allowed Galard and the medical staff continue to care for their wounded. Galard still refused any kind of cooperation. When some of the Vietminh begun to hoard medical supplies for their own use, she hid some of them under her stretcher bed.

On May 24, Genevieve de Galard was evacuated to French-held Hanoi, partially against her will.

On 29 July 1954 President Eisenhower awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden in Washington, DC.

She currently lives in Paris with her husband.

References

• Windrow, Martin The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004. ISBN 0-297-84671-X
• Time magazine: "Angel Returns", Time Magazine, 31 May 1954. www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819906-1,00.html