Charles Norman Shay, the Native American veteran who tended to the wounded at Omaha Beach on D-Day | EUROtoday

Seated in his massive crimson leather-based armchair, his gray hair impeccably combed and his tie knotted, Charles Norman Shay will rejoice his a hundredth birthday on June 27.

“The only thing I’ve ever achieved in my life is that I’ve never been wounded or killed. I’ve only done my job,” he says repeatedly to guests.

He is surrounded by mementos of his lengthy life: navy medals, pictures of household, associates and regimental companions. There can be a Native American headdress, and, scattered in every single place, small turtle statuettes – an emblem widespread to many Native American tribes, signifying longevity and knowledge.

Since 2017, Shay who grew up on a reservation in Maine, has determined to settle completely close to Caen, in Normandy simply twenty kilometres from the seashore the place he skilled, he says, “the most significant day of his life”, on June 6, 1944.

“I first came back to the D-Day beaches in 2007, and after that I got into the habit of attending the commemorations every year,” he says with a smile.

During the commemorations greater than 10 years in the past, Marie-Pascale Legrand first supplied Shay a spot to remain in her spacious Normandy house, and he or she continued to take action yearly thereafter. Legrand, 62, a local to the area, has been welcoming American veterans for greater than 30 years throughout the annual D-Day commemorations.

“After years of visits, discussions, correspondence by mail and telephone, we became great friends,” she says. “So when I went to visit him a few years ago, I saw that his health was declining and there was no one to help him. I decided to offer him a place here so that he could look after himself.”

“He accepted and I made part of my house available to him – including this library, which became his cocoon,” she continues. “Today, he’s part of the family.”

“When Marie-Pascale suggested I come and live in Normandy, I was very lonely. My wife had died a few years before. Today, I’m very happy here,” he says, flashing a smile at his benefactress.

‘They told me, “you’re going to be a medic”’

Yet for a very long time, coming to Normandy was “painful”, Shay admits. “Many of my friends died on these beaches. I’m still here, but it still pains me to think of all those who perished.”

Shay was born on June 27, 1924 into the Penobscot Native American tribe.

In 1943, on the top of the World War II, he was referred to as up for navy service – like his three brothers – “an obligation for young Native Americans”, he says. His brothers had been despatched to the Air Force and Navy, and he grew to become a fight medic.

“I was sent for military training and told ‘you’re going to be a medic’. It wasn’t my choice, but the assignment I was given,” he says with a shrug. “At first, I was sent to Indianapolis General Hospital. At the time, I was thinking that was pretty good, that I was going to spend my military service in a hospital. But fate decided otherwise.”

A number of months later, 19-year-old Shay set sail from New York aboard the ocean liner Queen  Elizabeth, transformed right into a troopship. He crossed the Atlantic to the small port of Bridport, England. There, he was assigned to the First Infantry Division, often called “the Big Red One”, as a fight medic.

“16th Infantry Regiment, Second Battalion, Company F,” Shay stated briskly. This was the start of his preparation for “a major special operation” by the Allied forces – the long run D-Day.

‘I do not know what number of males I’ve helped’

But 80 years have passed by for the reason that morning of June 6, 1944, and as Shay recounts “his longest day”, he makes no secret of how “tired” he’s of dredging up the previous, retelling tales he’s advised so many occasions in the midst of his life. “I just did what I was trained to do, and I was lucky to survive,” he says.

“We got the call very early in the morning, around 1 or 2 o’clock, to get ready to leave the ship and join the landing craft,” he explains with out emotion. “We arrived on Omaha Beach around 5am. The sea was pretty calm.”

“But when we jumped into the water, many of the soldiers were heavily laden with machine guns, mortars and ammunition. I saw many of them drown. They weren’t able to swim and there was no way to save them,” he continues. With his lighter medical tools, he managed to make his method to the seashore.

Shay then targeted on his job, taking good care of the wounded. “I don’t know how many hours I spent on the beach. There were so many wounded, so many people to take care of. I don’t know how many I helped.”

Along with many injured troopers who had been unknown to him, Shay got here throughout one among his associates, Edward Morozewicz, a 19-year-old fellow medic who was severely wounded.

“We had met in England and trained together. We’d become close,” he says, his voice filling with emotion. “When I found him, he had a bullet wound in the stomach, and I knew that he was not going to live very long. I knew I couldn’t heal him. I didn’t have the necessary instruments. He died while I was treating him.”

By late afternoon, Shay, drained of vitality, determined to go inland. “But I fell asleep at the top of the beach from exhaustion. When I woke up, I was surrounded by dead Germans and Americans,” he recollects. Eventually, he managed to rejoin his unit, and reunite with different survivors from his regiment.

The assault on Omaha Beach was the bloodiest fight zone of the D-Day landings, with 1,000 killed and a couple of,000 wounded or lacking of the 34,250 males who landed.

In the times that adopted, Shay continued to deal with the wounded on the battlefields of Normandy. His battalion later joined the push into Germany, the place he was taken prisoner in March, 1945. He was launched three weeks later, shortly earlier than the top of the battle in Europe.

Keeping Native American reminiscence alive

After the battle, Shay returned briefly to the United States however, unable to discover a job, he determined to re-enlist within the armed forces. In all, he spent twenty years within the navy. He took half as a medic within the Korean War, from 1950-1953, then participated in varied nuclear weapons exams within the Pacific. “Without ever being wounded,” he says proudly.

Shay lastly left the navy in 1965 and settled in Vienna, Austria, the place he grew to become an archivist for the United Nations. “That’s also where I met my wife Lily,” he says.

He has fond reminiscences of his years in Austria, recalling “vacations in the mountains”, “parties in town”, “his country house” and “his side job as a limousine driver to make ends meet”.

During these golden Austrian years, Shay says, he had “forgotten” the hours he spent on Omaha Beach. It was solely on the age of 82, inspired by associates, that he determined to return to Normandy.

For Shay, revisiting Normandy was a turning level. In the years that adopted, he grew to become one of many key gamers within the D-Day commemorations. Assisted by Legrand, he retold his D-Day tales in class school rooms, organised meals for veterans and attended each American commemoration of the invasion.

But above all, he made it his mission to pay tribute to the 44,000 Native Americans who took half in World War II and to those that got here ashore like him in Normandy.

He initiated the primary ceremonies in honour of Native Americans who served in uniform, presiding over conventional prayers. “In the early years, I was the only Native American present at the commemorations. Over the years, many people have joined us. We succeeded in highlighting their role in the war. It was important not to forget them,” he says with satisfaction.

In June 2017, as an emblem of this work of remembrance, a stele bearing his identify was inaugurated on the outskirts of Omaha Beach. Shaped like a turtle and sculpted by Shay’s nephew, it pays tribute to all Native American troopers.

But whereas he’s glad to attend the commemorations, he admits at this time that he desires to “leave this behind” and  determined two years in the past to move the baton to a different Native American, Gulf War veteran Julia Kelly, to hold on the observance.

For her half, Legrand has simply revealed Shay’s biography – a method of guaranteeing that his story continues to be handed on.

This story has been translated from the unique in French.