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By Monique Tapie
Founder of Shadwell Global Partners
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There are few heroes in this world, let alone ones still living from the Greatest Generation. When you come across them it touches your heart and when you have the good fortune of hearing their stories it touches your soul. None speak more to that emotion than Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot Indian from Maine, and a D-Day U.S. Army Combat Medic in the 16thInfantry Regiment, part of the unit known as the Big Red One. Shay had the distinction of being a part of one of three combat regiments of the 1st Infantry Division that spearheaded the D-Day assault in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.
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Coming in on the first wave of D-Day, then 19-year-old Shay found himself in the fiercest of battles on Omaha Beach. After having waded through chest-high waters onto the sand and with bullets ringing past his ears, Shay began treating the wounded immediately, even evacuating injured soldiers struggling to get to higher ground. A soulful human being, Shay cradled and comforted one of his best buddies, Private Edward Morozewicz, easing his pain as he died in his arms.
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Shay then continued from one injured soldier to the next. Seeing waves of red from the carnage of bodies coming onto the shores, he continued to patch them up, with no regard for himself. His actions and will to do the best he could enabled our troops to move forward and liberate the world from one of the most awful of tyrannies we have ever known—the Nazi Regime under the command of Adolf Hitler.
On that morning, the Big Red One sustained over 2,000 casualties in the very first hours of the D-Day landings. Before the morning was out, practically half of the soldiers and most of the officers in Shay's company were wounded or dead. Just about 3,000 Allied troops died, and some 9,000 were injured or classified as missing.
Shay's relentless sacrifice did not end on that day. He went on to provide combat medic services throughout the battles of the Hurtgen Forest and the Bulge, liberating the outskirts of Aachen. Facing unimaginable loss and heartache, Shay stood fast in providing care to his brothers in arms until he was captured by the Germans on March 25, 1945, nearly a year after the invasion of the beaches of Normandy took place. The prison camp where he was held was liberated by the 13th Armored Division three weeks later and Shay went on to Bremerhaven where he boarded a ship home to the welcoming arms of his mother. Shay was awarded the Silver Star and the French Légion d'Honneur for his heroic efforts.
Normally, our soldiers came home to a welcoming nation but for Shay, the welcoming was mostly shown only by the Penobscot Nation. Having been given the right to vote in every state but Maine, as a Penobscot Indian who had just fought for the freedoms for all, this was one freedom he was denied. He joined his wonderful mother, a fierce activist of Native American Indian rights, in fighting for their voice to be heard and for the right to vote. Showing up in uniform on election day, Shay was still turned away.
Never one to be deterred, not only has he continued to speak on behalf of Native American Indians, but Shay continued to serve our great nation, facing combat in Korea from 1950-1951 and going on to participate in the testing of the hydrogen bomb from February to July 1954.
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For Charles Norman Shay, and the thousands of men of the Greatest Generation, history must never be forgotten. Even at 100 years old on June 27, Shay continues to recount his story before children, students, people, and the press. For him, too many have forgotten the price of freedom—too many walk down a path of repetition.
Currently residing in Normandy, France, Shay lives in his own apartment under the wonderful care of Marie-Pascale LeGrand, his friend, historian, and author of his recent memoirs titled Spirits are Guiding. Few know his true reason for returning to the beaches where so many lives were lost—that reason may be because he wants to die with his friends.
With a total of 4,414 Allied troops killed on D-Day itself and more than 5,000 wounded, including the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded—how can one forget? Yet, now coming up on 80 years after these battles were fought on June 6, too many have forgotten.
Monique Tapie is founder of Shadwell Global Partners and the Normandy Leadership Program.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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