MAINE, USA — Gov. Janet Mills has ordered US and state flags lowered across Maine on Friday in honor of Charles Norman Shay, the highly decorated U.S. Army medic and revered Penobscot elder who will be laid to rest the same day in France.

Mills announced the tribute as she honored Shay’s life and military service, calling herself “deeply saddened” by his death. Shay died at 101-years-old Wednesday at his home in Bretteville-L'Orgueilleuse in Normandy, according to his longtime friend and caregiver, Marie-Pascale Legrand.

Shay was a 19-year-old Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day in June 1944. He was awarded the Silver Star for repeatedly entering the surf to pull wounded soldiers to safety and later received France’s Legion of Honor. He survived the Battle of Normandy and c

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