D-Day veteran Charles Shay, who saved lives on Omaha Seashore, dies

[ad_1] PARIS -- Charles Shay, a embellished Native American veteran who was a 19-year-old U.S. Military medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and helped save lives, died on Wednesday. He was 101.

Shay died at his dwelling in Bretteville-L'Orgueilleuse in France's Normandy area, his longtime good friend and carer Marie-Pascale Legrand stated.

Shay, of the Penobscot tribe and from Indian Island within the U.S. state of Maine, was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly plunging into the ocean and carrying critically wounded troopers to relative security, saving them from drowning. He additionally obtained France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007.

Shay had been dwelling in France since 2018, not removed from the shores of Normandy the place almost 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and different nations landed on D-Day on June 6, 1944. The Battle of Normandy hastened Germany’s defeat, which got here lower than a yr later.

“He handed away peacefully surrounded by his family members,” Legrand informed The Related Press.

The Charles Shay Memorial group, which honors the reminiscence of about 500 Native People who landed on the Normandy seashores, stated in an announcement posted on Fb that “our hearts are deeply saddened as we share that our beloved Charles Norman Shay ... has returned dwelling to the Creator and the Spirit World.”

“He was an extremely loving father, grandfather, father-in-law, and uncle, a hero to many, and an total superb human being,” the assertion stated. “Charles leaves a legacy of affection, service, braveness, spirit, responsibility and household that continues to shine brightly.”

For yr, Shay carried out a sage-burning ceremony, in homage to those that died, at a website overlooking Omaha Seashore, the place the monument bearing his identify now stands. In 2022, he handed over the remembrance job to a different Native American, Julia Kelly, a Gulf Struggle veteran from the Crow tribe.

On D-Day, 4,414 Allied troops misplaced their lives, 2,501 of them People. Greater than 5,000 have been wounded. On the German aspect, a number of thousand have been killed or wounded.

“I suppose I used to be ready to offer my life if I needed to. Thankfully, I didn't should,” Shay stated in March 2024 in an interview with The Related Press.

“I had been given a job, and the best way I checked out it, it was as much as me to finish my job,” he recalled. “I didn't have time to fret about my scenario of being there and maybe dropping my life. There was no time for this.”