Charles Shay, Penobscot D-Day Medic Who Repeatedly Braved Omaha Beach, Dies at 101

Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot veteran who as a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic plunged into the surf on Omaha Beach to rescue wounded soldiers, has died at 101. His longtime friend and caregiver, Marie-Pascale Legrand, said he died at his home in Bretteville-L'Orgueilleuse in Normandy, France, surrounded by loved ones.

Born on Indian Island in Maine, Shay earned the Silver Star after repeatedly wading into the surf to carry critically wounded men to safety. France awarded him the Legion of Honor in 2007. He lived in France from 2018 to be near the Normandy beaches where so many fell; he told those close to him that he felt a duty to honor and speak for his fallen comrades.

Bravery on D‑Day

On June 6, 1944, Shay landed on Omaha Beach as a medic. Under intense mortar and artillery fire, he helped wounded soldiers who could not escape the tide or crawl to safety. He later recalled waking in a grove above the shoreline surrounded by the dead, but quickly moving on to continue his mission of care and evacuation.

"I guess I was prepared to give my life if I had to. Fortunately, I did not have to," Shay said when reflecting on his wartime service. "I had been given a job, and the way I looked at it, it was up to me to complete my job."

Shay spent several weeks rescuing and treating the wounded in Normandy before advancing with American forces into eastern France and Germany. He was captured in March 1945 and was liberated a few weeks later.

Life after the war and a message of peace

After World War II, Shay reenlisted in part because poverty and discrimination limited opportunities for Native Americans in his home state; residents living on some reservations in Maine were not allowed to vote until 1954. He later served as a medic in the Korean War, took part in U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, and worked for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

For more than six decades he rarely spoke about D‑Day. Beginning in 2007 he attended commemorations in Normandy and in later years used those occasions to share his testimony and plead for peace. During the COVID-19 pandemic his solitary presence at some ceremonies took on special meaning when travel restrictions kept many families and fellow veterans away.

For years Shay performed a sage‑burning ceremony on a bluff above Omaha Beach to honor the dead; a monument bearing his name stands nearby. On June 6, 2022, he passed the remembrance role to Julia Kelly, a Native American Gulf War veteran. He voiced deep sadness at renewed conflict in Europe, saying that seeing war return to the continent pained him.

The Charles Shay Memorial group, which honors the roughly 500 Native Americans who landed on the Normandy beaches, called him "a loving father, grandfather and a hero to many" and said he leaves a legacy of service, courage and family.