On D-Day, 19-year-old medic Charles Shay was ready to give his life, and save as many as he could

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D-Day veteran Charles Shay is about to take part in next month’s ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. Then a 19-year-old army medic, the Native American was ready to give his life, but also sought to save as many as he could. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace.

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FILE — WWII veteran Charles Shay, pays tribute to soldiers during a D-Day commemoration ceremony of the 78th anniversary for those who helped end World War II, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Monday, June 6, 2022. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/ Jeremias Gonzalez, File)

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WWII veteran Charles Shay, is pictured at his home Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse, Normandy. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Schaeffer)

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FILE - WWII veteran Charles Shay, 97, right, and Gulf war veteran Julia Kelly pay tribute to soldiers during a D-Day commemoration ceremony of the 78th anniversary for those who helped end World War II, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, Monday, June 6, 2022. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation.(AP Photo/ Jeremias Gonzalez, File)

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FILE - U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (Bert Brandt/Pool via AP, File)

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U.S. Army medical personnel administer a plasma transfusion to a wounded comrade, who survived when his landing craft went down off the coast of Normandy, France, in the early days of the Allied landing operations in June 1944. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo, File)

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Men of the American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming a coastal area code-named Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of the Normandy, wait by the chalk cliffs at Collville-sur-Mer for evacuation to a field hospital for further treatment, June 6, 1944. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo, File)

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People walk on Omaha beach at sunset, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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A girl watches the monument called Signal, dedicated to the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, on Omaha Beach at sunset, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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A man walks on Gold beach in Arromanches, Normandy, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. In the background are the remains of the artificial harbor of Arromanches. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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This photo taken on Wednesday April 10, 2024, shows crosses of the US cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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The sun rises on Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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The sun rises on the US cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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Students walk by a bunker in Longues-sur-Mer, Normandy, Thursday, April 11, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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The monument called Les Braves, dedicated to the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, is seen on Omaha Beach at sunset, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, Thursday, April 11, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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People walk by a bunker in Longues-sur-Mer, Normandy, Thursday, April 11, 2024. On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old Native American army medic who was ready to give his life — and actually saved many. Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER and SYLVIE CORBET

BRETTEVILLE-L’ORGUEILLEUSE, France (AP) — On D-Day, Charles Shay was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic who was ready to give his life — and save as many as he could.

Now 99, he’s spreading a message of peace with tireless dedication as he’s about to take part in the 80th anniversary commemorations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation.

“I guess I was prepared to give my life if I had to. Fortunately, I did not have to,” Shay said in an interview with The Associated Press.

A Penobscot tribe citizen from Indian Island in the U.S. state of Maine, Shay has been living in France since 2018, not far from the shores of Normandy where many world leaders are expected to come next month. Solemn ceremonies will be honoring the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and other nations who landed on June 6, 1944.

Nothing could have prepared Shay for what happened that morning on Omaha Beach: bleeding soldiers, body parts and corpses strewn around him, machine-gun fire and shells filling the air.

“I had been given a job, and the way I looked at it, it was up to me to complete my job,” he recalled. “I did not have time to worry about my situation of being there and perhaps losing my life. There was no time for this.”

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Shay was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly plunging into the sea and carrying critically wounded soldiers to relative safety, saving them from drowning. He also received France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, in 2007.

Still, Shay could not save his good friend, Pvt. Edward Morozewicz. The sad memory remains vivid in his mind as he describes seeing his 22-year-old comrade lying on the beach with a serious stomach wound.

“He had a wound that I could not help him with because I did not have the proper instruments ... He was bleeding to death. And I knew that he was dying. I tried to comfort him. And I tried to do what I could for him, but there was no help,” he said. “And while I was treating him, he died in my arms.”

“I lost many close friends,” he added.

A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.

Shay survived. At night, exhausted, he eventually fell asleep in a grove above the beach.

“When I woke up in the morning. It was like I was sleeping in a graveyard because there were dead Americans and Germans surrounding me,” he recalled. “I stayed there for not very long and I continued on my way.”

Shay then pursued his mission in Normandy for several weeks, rescuing those wounded, before heading with American troops to eastern France and Germany, where he was taken prisoner in March 1945 and liberated a few weeks later.

After World War II, Shay reenlisted in the military because the situation of Native Americans in his home state of Maine was too precarious due to poverty and discrimination.

“I tried to cope with the situation of not having enough work or not being able to help support my mother and father. Well, there was just no chance for young American Indian boys to gain proper labor and earn a good job,” he said.

Maine would not allow individuals living on Native American reservations to vote until 1954.

Shay continued to witness history — returning to combat as a medic during the Korean War, participating in U.S. nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and later working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.

For over 60 years, he did not talk about his WWII experience.

But he began attending D-Day commemorations in 2007 and in recent years, he has seized many occasions to give his powerful testimony. A book about his life, “Spirits are guiding” by author Marie-Pascale Legrand, is about to be released this month.

In 2018, he moved from Maine to Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse, a French small town in the Normandy region to stay at a friend’s home.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, coming from his nearby home, he was among the few veterans able to attend commemorations. He stood up for all others who could not make the trip amid restrictions.

Shay also used to lead a Native American ritual each year on D-Day, burning sage in homage to those who died. In 2022, he handed over the remembrance task to another Native American, Julia Kelly, a Gulf War veteran from the Crow tribe, who since has performed the ritual in his presence.

The Charles Shay Memorial on Omaha Beach pays tribute to the 175 Native Americans who landed there on D-Day.

Often, Shay expressed his sadness at seeing wars still waging in the world and what he considers the senseless loss of lives.

Shay said he had hoped D-Day would bring global peace. “But it has not, because you see that we go from one war to the next. There will always be wars. People and nations cannot get along with each other.”