From the June 6, 2021, Chicago Tribune "D-Day spirit of remembrance lives on despite pandemic" by Sylvie Corbet.
In a small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of D-Day, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shay. he was the only veteran attending a ceremony at Carentan, France, commemorating the 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this year's D-Day commemorations are taking place with travel restrictions that have prevented the veterans or families of them from coming from the United States
Shay, who lives in Normandy, was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Today, he recalls the "many good friends" he lost that day and on other battlefields.
He is now 96-years old and originally from Maine and is a Penobscot Native American. Throughout the ceremony commemorating the assault on Carentan that allowed the Allies to establish a continuous front joining nearby Utah Beach and Omaha Beach, he stood steadily while the national anthems of the Allied countries were played.
--GreGen
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