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

Charles Norman Shay was one of the 500 Native Americans who came ashore on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was barely 20 years old and had grown up on an Indian reservation in the US state of Maine. Today, the former combat medic has settled permanently in the Calvados district of Normandy, a few kilometres from where “the most important day of his life” took place.

Seated in his large red leather armchair, his grey hair impeccably combed and his tie knotted, Charles Norman Shay will celebrate his 100th 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 visitors.

He is surrounded by mementos of his long life: military medals, photos of family, friends and regimental companions. There is also a Native American headdress, and, scattered everywhere, small turtle statuettes – a symbol common to many Native American tribes, signifying longevity and wisdom.

Since 2017, Shay who grew up on a reservation in Maine, has decided to settle permanently near Caen, in Normandy just twenty kilometres from the beach where he experienced, 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 more than 10 years ago, Marie-Pascale Legrand first offered Shay a place to stay in her spacious Normandy home, and she continued to do so every year thereafter. Legrand, 62, a native to the region, has been welcoming American veterans for more than 30 years during the annual D-Day commemorations.

Read more on FRANCE 24 English

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