D-Day Medic Charles Norman Shay, 101, Dies — Penobscot Veteran Who Rescued Troops on Omaha Beach Lived His Final Years in Normandy

Charles Norman Shay, Penobscot D-Day Medic, Dies at 101

Charles Norman Shay, a medic from the Penobscot Indian Nation who waded ashore on Omaha Beach on D-Day and pulled drowning soldiers to safety, has died at 101. In the last decade of his life he lived in a small Normandy town a few miles from the sands where he fought and regularly recounted his experiences to visitors and U.S. troops. A memorial bust honoring Shay now stands above Omaha Beach as part of a tribute to Native American service members who took part in the landings.

Landing Under Fire

Shay died on Wednesday at his home in Thue et Mue, France, just outside Caen, roughly 30 miles from Omaha Beach. He was believed to be the last surviving member of about 500 Native American service members who landed during the June 6, 1944 invasion, with some researchers estimating that as many as 175 Native American troops came ashore on Omaha Beach. His company arrived far from its assigned sector, directly in front of two German machine-gun positions.

Describing the chaos in a 2017 Library of Congress interview, Shay said his immediate objective was survival and that he began treating those who reached the shore. While attending the wounded, naval gunfire and assaults by fellow soldiers eventually neutralized the German machine-gun positions.

"I saw there was many men in the water who were floundering, and I knew if no one went to help them they would die," Shay told the Library of Congress. "I proceeded back in the water to get as many out as I could by turning them over on their backs and grabbing them by their shoulders. I don’t know where my strength came from. But once the adrenaline starts flowing in your body, you can do unbelievable feats of strength."

Service, Sacrifice and Recognition

Separated from his unit as the fighting continued, Shay later found a fellow medic mortally wounded and gave him morphine in their final moments together. For his bravery on D-Day he was awarded the Silver Star. He later earned three Bronze Stars with "V" devices for combat in Korea and served more than two decades in the U.S. military, retiring at the rank of master sergeant.

Early Life and Later Years

Born in 1924 in Bristol, Connecticut, Shay was one of nine children. His family moved to the Penobscot Nation reservation in Maine when he was five. According to the tribe's biography, as the only Native boy in a class of 40 students he crossed the river by ferry or canoe or walked over the ice in winter to attend school. Drafted after high school, he was assigned to the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, and was in the first assault wave at Omaha Beach.

Shay remained on the front lines for almost a year, saw combat in the Battle of the Bulge, and was captured, spending nearly a month in a German prison camp before being liberated late in the war. After World War II he served as a military policeman in Vienna, where he met his wife, Lilli; they were married until her death in 2003. He later joined the Air Force in 1952, was based at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, took part in units stationed in the Marshall Islands during live nuclear tests, and left the service in 1964.

Shay and his family lived for nearly four decades in Vienna, Austria, before moving back to the Penobscot reservation in Maine. He did not return to Omaha Beach until after his wife's death; when he finally visited, he told Portland Magazine in 2017 that the experience was overwhelming and that he still heard the screams and cries of the wounded in his memory. That same year he moved to Normandy and a memorial bust honoring him was dedicated above Omaha Beach. For years he welcomed visitors and troops to Normandy, sharing his first-hand account of one of World War II's defining moments.

Legacy

Shay's story highlights the contributions and sacrifices of Native American service members during World War II. The memorial bust above Omaha Beach and the numerous interviews and visits he gave in Normandy helped ensure that his deeds—and those of the many Native Americans who served—remain part of the public memory of D-Day.