AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
D-Day, 1944. Charles Norman Shay is a 19-year-old member of the Penobscot Nation, serving as an army medic as Allied forces stormed Omaha Beach. Shay left that day a hero. He died Wednesday at age 101. As Maine Public Radio's Kaitlyn Budion reports, Charles Norman Shay was one of the first Indigenous soldiers from that era to share his experiences.
KAITLYN BUDION, BYLINE: Charles Norman Shay was awarded the Silver Star for going back into the water on D-Day to pull injured soldiers to shore, saving them from drowning. Shay had been drafted into the army after the United States joined World War II. He was trained as a medic and transferred to the 16th Infantry Regiment, one of the three combat regiments of the first infantry division that spearheaded the Normandy invasion later known as D-Day. In an interview with Maine Public in 2007, Shay recalled returning to the water.
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CHARLES NORMAN SHAY: I don't know how I ever did it. And I pulled several men up out of the water and to the safety of the - out of the water to the beach. I did what I could for them. I don't know where my strength came from, but I was able to save several lives.
BUDION: Shay would later become one of the first Indigenous soldiers to talk about his experiences in battle, said Harald Prins in an interview with Maine Public last year. Prins is the co-author of "From Indian Island To Omaha Beach: The D-Day Story Of Charles Shay."
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HARALD PRINS: Most people, when they go to American Indian reservations, they want to know about moccasins, tribal dances, shamans, you name it. But they don't really think about the fact that many of these Native Americans have traveled all across the world and fought across the world.
BUDION: Shay reenlisted after World War II and was later deployed in Korea before he retired in 1954 as a master sergeant. He was awarded France's highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007 and moved to the Normandy region of France in 2018, where he lived until his death on Wednesday. In an interview with Maine Public last year, Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis said Shay is held in high esteem by his community.
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KIRK FRANCIS: I'm just proud of the ambassador that he is and the example he sets for people and how people look at Indian people in general. That's a guy that should be emulated.
BUDION: A post on Shay's Instagram page says he died peacefully surrounded by family. He was 101.
For NPR News, I'm Kaitlyn Budion in Bangor, Maine. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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