Geneviève de Galard is a French nurse who was dubbed “the Angel of Dien Bien Phu" by the Hanoi press, after being stranded there March 28, 1954 during the French war in Indochina. Galard volunteered to work at the field hospital and was the only woman on site managing a 40 bed facility for the gravely injured. Geneviève was awarded the Légion d´honneur & the Croix de Guerre TOE (War Cross for foreign operational theaters) on 29th of April 1954. On 7th of May the French troops at Dien Bien Phu were forced to yield to the Vietminh. Galard was allowed with other medical staff to continue to care for the wounded & she worked changing bandages despite short supplies. When the Vietminh began to steal medical supplies, she hid some of them under her stretcher bed. Galard was evacuated (against her will) to French held Hanoi on the 4th of May. She was the first medical staff member to leave & quickly became a media sensation, appearing on the cover of Paris Match that week. U.S. Congresswoman Frances P. Bolton urged the United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to invite the French nurse to the United States. On arrival in New York City in July, she was introduced as a "symbol of heroic femininity in the free world" & given a Ticker Tape parade down Broadway in her honor & then a reception at city hall. She flew to Washington, D.C. on the 29th of July 1954 & President Eisenhower awarded her the Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, calling her the "woman of the year." Geneviève was then sent on a tour of six states including Cleveland, Chicago, New Orleans & San Francisco Today a 95 year old Geneviève lives in Paris with her husband. - #vintageworkwear #brushstrokecamo #camo #camouflage #1950s #nurse #nursing #genevievedegalard #warnurse #vintagewomenswear #vintageoveralls #vintagewomen #vintagecoveralls #vintagestyle #borrowedfromtheboys #rugged https://www.instagram.com/p/B_KWPNKDQcn/?igshid=ifu6g8aw36bc
