"FRENCHY"

[sfmike]

I first met Frenchy at the Marina, Californa Colonel Maggie's All Airborne Reunion Parade.

Frenchy had been adopted as an honorary Green Beret of the 3rd Battalion, 12th Special Forces Group, a reserve Army outfit in California.

“A casual conversation started it,” she says of the mutual admiration fostered between her and the veteran soldiers. “We have a thing in Paso Robles each September called ‘Airport Day.’ An air show and parachuting. I enjoy it very much. It brings back memories. In 1976 skydiving show. Afterward, one of them asked me how I liked it. I told him I had jumped during the war in the 1940s.”

In September 1976, Frenchy made friends with LTC Jim Beard and his Green Berets. In December 1977 Beard invited Frenchy and her husband to a Special Forces banquet in San Francisco.

To her dismay, Beard introduced her at the banquet as the surprise guest of honor, citing her as “an extraordinary woman.” She was presented with a green beret and named an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces Association. With tears in her eyes, she listened to her life story being recounted to the crowd.

 

[Marauder06]

Sooo.... what was her life story?

 

[sfmike]

She served in the Special Air Service of the French Army and became part of the French resistance during World War II. She moved to England where she trained to be a secret agent for the British Special Operations Executive and became a paratrooper.
Frenchy jumped behind enemy lines several times and brought back very important information to the British headquarters. Her missions ended when she was captured by German forces. She was tortured by the Gestapo, sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen, repeated raped and sodomized. On 1 May 1945 she was liberated.
She went to night school and became a nurse. She went to French Indochina and worked from 1947 to 1949. She fell in love, married and had a son. Her husband became MIA during a mission. Their son and maid were killed when their house was hit by mortars. She returned to France where she went to work in the American Embassy and became an interpreter for GEN Eisenhower. She met an American soldier, got married, moved to the US, and became a US citizen in 1958. They adopted a girl.
Frenchy met members of the US Special Forces one day and they took her into their fold. She became an honorary member of this prestigious group. They gave her a Green Beret and title of lieutenant colonel.
She also joined the California State Guard. She began volunteering at the Camp Robert's Historical Museum in San Miguel. Frenchy became a philanthropist. What money she made she donated to both the Special Forces and Special Operations Associations. She became a speaker at many of their functions as well as at military bases and schools.
When she passed away on 7 October 1997 she received full military honors and was posthumously promoted to colonel.
Since she jumped behind enemy lines during WW II, she also earned herself the coveted Red Beret of US paratroopers.

 

[AKkeith]

Wow. She sounds like an extraordinary woman indeed.

 

[Gypsy]

Frenchy, it's an honor to read about your experiences, thank you for your service.