AUGUSTA (AP) – French President Nicholas Sarkozy will present the Legion of Honor to a Maine man who was a D-Day hero during a ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington.

Charles Shay of Indian Island will receive one of seven Legion of Honor awards to be presented by Sarkozy during Tuesday’s ceremony, said Severin Beliveau, honorary French consul for the state who will attend the ceremony. The award dates back to Napoleon.

Shay, an 83-year-old elder of the Penobscot Indian Nation, saw action at Omaha Beach and holds a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars, said Beliveau.

The Army medic’s Silver Star citation says Shay “repeatedly plunged into the treacherous sea and carried critically wounded men to safety.”

Members of the Maine congressional delegation are planning to attend Tuesday’s ceremony, which comes a day before the French leader is to address a joint session of Congress.

Shay is a descendant of the third Baron de St. Castin, a French nobleman who married the daughter of Penobscot Chief Madockawando in 1670, and Joseph Orono, a Penobscot Indian chief for whom a Maine town is named.

Shay stayed in Europe after World War II, but returned to Indian Island in 2003.

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