Memorial Day: Honoring the sacrifice of Staff Sgt. James Norman Byers
By Kevin Dayhoff Wednesday, May 25, 2011 http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4418
Hopefully, you and your family will pause this Memorial Day to remember those men and women in uniform who have gone before us and made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and our way of life.
For many, Memorial Day is a special holiday in which we honor the legacy of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. We owe a great debt and responsibility to remember and honor these heroes in our hearts.
Over 2.7 million Americans served in the Vietnam War. Of the 58,200 names listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, 1,046 are Marylanders who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Vietnam War.
President Kennedy once said “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
On Monday, after the Memorial Day ceremonies at the Westminster Cemetery, many of us will also gather at the nearby Carroll County Vietnam Memorial. There we informally pay our respects to all the patriots that have gone before us; but we are particularly drawn together to share the memories of the eighteen names that are etched in the black granite memorial that is the centerpiece of the memorial park.
One such hero, whose face is indelibly etched into the cold stone memorial, is that of Staff Sgt. James Norman Byers of Westminster.
Byers had been deployed to Vietnam for five months when he was killed by a Viet Cong sniper on Friday, January 20, 1967. He was born on Monday, March 2, 1942 in Union Mills and was he son of Norman and Sarah Shorb Byers.
He was just 24 years old when he died serving our country. Staff Sergeant Byers, who had decided to make a career of serving in the Army, was a squad leader attached to the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Company B, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry and stationed in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam… http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4418
[20110525 TT pubver Memorial Day James N Byers]
More information on Carroll County and the Vietnam War may be found in “Tours of Duty” by Gary D. Jestes and Jay A. Graybeal; on sale at the Historical Society of Carroll County.
Photo caption: Staff Sgt. James Norman Byers - Byers had been deployed to Vietnam for five months when he was killed by a Viet Cong sniper on Friday, January 20, 1967. Staff Sergeant Byers, who had decided to make a career of serving in the Army, was a squad leader attached to the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Company B, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry and stationed in Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam. [19670126 SSgt James N Byers]
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