Twelve years ago this month [March], Dr. Rene Joyeuse was interred at Arlington National Cemetery just outside the Nation’s capital. It was a fitting honor for the decorated military hero who had served the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—CIA’s predecessor—as a member of the Free French Forces, helping the Allies to victory during World War II.
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Rene Veuve was born in Switzerland to a French carpenter father and an Italian housemaid mother in 1920. After Germany invaded France in 1940, he joined the Free French Forces and worked with the OSS. The OSS assigned him the codename Joyeuse (“Joyful”) after medieval emperor Charlemagne’s legendary sword. As it turned out, the moniker would stick with the young OSS recruit forever.
In April 1944, Joyeuse and his OSS team took part in Operation Sussex, bravely parachuting into occupied France to gather critical intelligence on German installations, military manufacturing facilities, supply depots, and troop movements. Using his Mark IV radio, Joyeuse transmitted messages to London. The information he relayed allowed Allied air forces to bomb enemy targets before storming the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day).
Ultimately, his resistance network rescued more than 200 Allied aircrew members who were shot down over occupied France – not only helping them to evade capture but also taking extraordinary measures to repatriate them. Joyeuse himself was wounded during a mission and barely escaped capture.
As a result of his brave actions, Joyeuse was personally awarded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower the Nation’s second-highest combat award, the Distinguished Service Cross, for extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy. Joyeuse also received the Légion d’Honneur-Chevalier, the highest military award in France.
After WWII, Veuve officially adopted Joyeuse as his surname.
Joyeuse went on to study medicine at the University of Paris, where he met his future wife, Suzanne Bouffon. Upon earning his doctoral degree in 1955, the couple emigrated to the United States and married. Until his death, Joyeuse was dedicated to the woman and the country that captured his heart.
After emigrating to the U.S., Joyeuse continued to study, teach, and practice medicine. He worked as an emergency trauma surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and also significantly contributed to heart valve replacement research at the University of California, Los Angeles. Years later, his beloved wife Suzanne received a heart valve that her husband had worked to develop.
Joyeuse’s contribution to the “golden hour” concept of trauma care—providing emergency medical services within 60 minutes—carries through to this day, particularly in military medicine, and has helped save the lives of countless service members.
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Dr. Joyeuse died on June 12, 2012.
Joyeuse’s abiding wish was a final resting place on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. His wish was nearly not fulfilled as Joyeuse did not technically meet the Cemetery’s eligibility requirement given that he served in the OSS rather than as an active U.S. military servicemember during WWII.
However, the CIA justly advocated on Joyeuse’s behalf, and then-U.S. Secretary of the Army John McHugh approved the burial based on Joyeuse’s “extraordinary heroism, lifetime scientific contributions, and civilian support to the U.S. military.”
Today, anyone who visits Arlington National Cemetery can honor those who have served the United States and pay their respects to Dr. Rene Joyeuse, a resistance fighter turned spy, turned medical pioneer. An American hero.