He was instrumental in the re-publishing of a book by his own grandfather, Joseph Nicolar: The Life and Traditions of the Red Man, originally published in 1893.

Shay pulled several struggling soldiers from the rising tide, saving many immobilized wounded from drowning[3] during the first wave of the landing of Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Shay was later attached to a reconnaissance squadron moving into the small farming village of Auel near the Sieg River in Germany.

The squadron was then marched 50–60 miles, moving only by night, to the POW camp Stalag VI-G.[5] The column of prisoners grew along the way as the German unit accumulated more and more American soldiers.

[6] When the Korean War broke out later that year, Shay joined the 3rd Division's 7th Infantry Regiment as a medic and was shipped to Japan.

Shay lived until 2018 in the community of the Native Americans reservation where he spent his childhood on Penobscot Island, opposite Old Town, Maine.

The group was awarded grants to fund the journey from both the Maine Humanities Council and the First Division Museum in Wheaton, Illinois.

The trip was documented and filmed for future reference and in order to shed light on the experiences of American Indian soldiers in World War II.

[15] Eight years later, he was invited to ceremonially inaugurate a large granite turtle sculpture at the "Charles Shay Indian Memorial," a small park in the dunes overlooking Omaha Beach.