This story in Indian Country gives me great pride in my tribe and in mine and Guss’ grandmother’s nephew, our mothers’ first cousin.

I didn’t know all of this about Charles Shay, and Melvin Neptune, but my heart swelled with pride as I read the article.

AUGUSTA, Me. - On the eve of June 6, 1944, Charles Norman Shay, a 19-year old Penobscot serving with the 16th Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, ran into his friend Melvin Neptune, a fellow Penobscot and member of the division’s 26th Regiment. They were on the ship that carried the troops to their rendezvous with German forces the next morning on what would become known as D-Day.

The two men did not see each other again until they returned home to Indian Island reservation after the war.

But 63 three years later, Shay, now 83, paid homage to the late Neptune during a ceremony at which Maine Gov. John Baldacci honored Shay and all of Maine’s Native veterans with a proclamation naming June 6, as Native American Veterans History Day.

”We did not discuss the campaign that was about to take place,” Shay recalled of the night before the historic allied invasion of France, ”but instead we talked about home and the young men and boys we grew up with and were wondering where they were and what they were now doing. From our small community of 500 individuals, 85 young men and women had volunteered for all branches of the military to fight for this country”

Shay’s unit was among the first to make the difficult landing on Omaha Beach. Pre-landing air bombardments and naval gunfire had not dislodged the German defenses from their positions on bluffs as high as 170 feet above the beach. During the hard-won battle that day, Shay’s division lost about 1,000 men.

Shay earned a Silver Star for his unselfish heroism that day, subordinating ”personal safety to the welfare of his comrades, [having] plunged repeatedly into the treacherous sea and carried critically wounded men to safety,” Baldacci read from the proclamation.

It’s no wonder Uncle Leo and Auntie Florence were so proud of their son.

Please read the entire story to see what this man has done in service to his country and is doing now to get Native Americans the recognition they deserve for serving our country.

I’m proud of you, Charlie! And I’m sure Guss is too.

As a side note: my mother’s funeral had to be put off one day due to Melvin Neptune re-marrying and using the church facilities. That’s fine since he was a hero too.