Capt. Joshua Todd Byers

Laurens

Capt. Joshua Todd Byers, age 29, died July 23, 2003, in Iraq.

He was born in Anderson and was a son of Dr. Lloyd Charles Byers Jr. and Mary
Alewine Byers.

He was a graduate of Reed High School in Sparks, Nev., the United States
Military Academy at West Point, class of 1996, and the University of Missouri,
with a master of science in engineering management. He was a member of Heart of
the Springs Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was a captain in the military,
serving as company commander of Fox Troop, 2/3 ACR, Fort Carson, Colo. He
completed air assault, Airborne and Ranger training, and served at Fort Stewart,
Ga., Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Carson, Colo.

Surviving are his wife, Kim Byers; parents, Mary Alewine Byers and Dr. Lloyd
Charles Byers Jr.; two brothers, Milam Byers and Jared Byers; and his
grandmother, Julia Byers.

Funeral services will be conducted Saturday at 2 p.m. at New Prospect Baptist
Church, with burial at Lisbon Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

The family will receive friends Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Gray Funeral
Home in Laurens. -- Gray Funeral Home-Laurens.

Article in Greenville News in Jeanne Brooks' column    
Posted Monday, July 28, 2003 - 9:06 pm

Soldier Saves Many Lives, Loses His Own
 
His degree was in theoretical economics. That's something to remember. He was
smart, and not just ordinary smart. He was way beyond ordinary smart.
Remember that.
Remember he loved baseball. He made the all-star team when he was a kid and
living on the South Carolina coast, in Georgetown. He was a pitcher.

Remember most of all how he loved his family. His father is a Baptist
minister. He grew up moving from place to place. Through his early years, he lived in
different houses in different towns and went to different schools and made
different friends.

The true constants in his life were God and church and family. With his
wedding in 1998, his family constant expanded by one more: his wife, Kim.

These are all things to remember about Capt. Josh Byers who, on July 23,
about 7:30 a.m. Iraqi time, became what is called a casualty, though there is
nothing casual about death. The word goes back to archaic origins meaning fortune
or chance.

As of Monday, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count Web site, 246
U.S. soldiers had died in Iraq since the war began in March. The website lists
Department of Defense and CENTCOM press releases, as well as The Army Times and
CNN, among its sources.

Lloyd Byers, Josh's father, said Iraqis hiding in bushes used a remote
control device to explode a bomb under the Humvee his son was riding in. "What took
his life was shrapnel that entered his chest."

The captain who escorted Josh's body home told the family he didn't suffer.
"The captain said he laid back and went to sleep."

Josh Byers was killed on his mother's birthday. He was 29.

Since they got the news, the family has had "good moments and a lot of bad
moments," Lloyd Byers said. "It's been really tough." The father can't sleep
much at night. He gets up at 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. and goes for drives with his
dog.

Josh's wife, his mother, Mary, and his younger brothers, Milam and Jared, and
all the rest of the family are "just devastated," he said, "but we'll draw
our strength from God."

The father remembers a little tow-headed bundle of energy who used to zip
around so fast Abbeville churchmembers said his legs looked like a wheel. He
remembers the middle-schooler who read the encyclopedia every night before bed. He
remembers Josh's passion for writing. He remembers his son's smile.

Josh Byers' pastor at Ft. Stewart sent the family an e-mail. The pastor said
he once asked Josh why he became a soldier. Josh's answer was, "This is what
God made me for. From the time I was a little boy, this is what I wanted to do.
I love my country."

The calls started once word of his death got out, people calling to say what
Josh had done for the soldiers in their families. A woman in North Carolina
said her son told her that Josh Byers saved his life twice.

The captain who brought him home said Josh "saved many, many lives," Lloyd
Byers recalled. Only about three weeks ago, an Iraqi boy, around 7 or 8 years
old, wandered into a mine field. The captain said Josh walked into the mine
field and brought the boy out.

A developer in Colorado Springs is naming a street "Josh Byers Way." To reach
it, you have to take either Hero Lane or Honor Lane.

Services for Josh Byers, native of Anderson, West Point graduate, will be
Saturday at New Prospect Baptist Church in Laurens County. He died too soon.
Remember him. Remember all of them.

Article in Spartanburg Herald Newspaper
Posted on August 01, 2003

Captain Remembered as a Leader
      
By Associated Press
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- A captain killed in Iraq was remembered Wednesday as an
impeccable soldier and leader who loved his command and put his troops'
welfare above all else.

Capt. Josh Byers was killed July 23 when a homemade bomb was placed under his
Humvee outside Ramadi, Iraq.

"We lost one of our best and brightest last week and the world is now a
darker place," Lt. Dan Lawrence, who served with Byers, said at a memorial service
at Fort Carson.

Byers, 29, is the 13th Fort Carson soldier to die in Iraq. The funeral and
burial tentatively are planned for Saturday, at Lisbon Presbyterian Church in
Mountville, S.C. Byers was a native of Anderson, S.C.

About 600 soldiers -- some back because of combat injuries -- wives of troops
still in Iraq and others crammed Soldier's Memorial Chapel.

They told stories about how he could make people laugh in the toughest times.
How he once pulled on red, white and blue boxer shorts and wrapped a Kuwaiti
flag around his shoulders like a cape and struck a pose.

"He proceeded to stand by for photos," said Staff Sgt. Sean Watson, who
witnessed the morale-boosting antics.

Others recalled heroic acts, including his tiptoeing into a minefield to
rescue children who had ventured there in search of firewood and pushing a fellow
captain behind a wall as shrapnel poured down on them.

"Afterward, he said he didn't remember doing it," said Capt. Jesse Sellars,
Byers' best friend. "He was the finest among all of us."

Byers, a 1996 West Point graduate, commanded Fox Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd
Armored Cavalry Regiment.

He was married to Kim Byers and was the son of Baptist missionaries Lloyd and
Mary Byers and himself was a Southern Baptist lay leader. His parents are
director of missions for the Guam Baptist Association. Lloyd Byers earlier served
as a pastor in Sparks, Nev., Mountville, S.C., and Mt. Airy, Ga.

Byers attended high school in Sparks, Nev.

Article in Anderson Independent Newspaper
By The Associated Press
July 25, 2003

S.C. Native Among Latest Killed in Iraq

SPARKS, Nev. — An Anderson County native and graduate of Reed High School in
Sparks, Nev. is among the latest casualties of the war in Iraq.

Capt. Josh Byers, 29, was killed Wednesday when the convoy he was riding in
was ambushed near the town of Ramadi, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, family
members said. Seven others were injured.

The Army ranger and paratrooper was a company commander in the 3rd Cavalry
Regiment and was most recently based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He was deployed to Iraq in April.

A native of Anderson, Capt. Byers moved with his family to Sparks in 1989, in
time to start the second semester of his freshman year at Reed.

"He was a proud Southern guy," Beau Elsfelder said of his high school friend.
"He was a very approachable person. He’d do anything for you, that’s for sure."

Capt. Byers’ father, a minister, started a church in Sparks. The family moved
back to Hilton Head in 1995, when Josh Byers was at West Point. His
grandmother, Julia Myers of Laurens, said that to her grandson, South Carolina was his home.

"He was such a fine fellow," Mrs. Myers said. "He really took the Army
slogan, ‘Be all you can be’ to heart. He has always been that type of boy. He always did his best."

The death of the U.S. Military Academy graduate came on his mother’s birthday.

His mother, Mary Byers, said her son was sitting in the passenger seat of a
Humvee when two men hiding in roadside bushes triggered an explosive device.

"You’re telling yourself, ‘This can’t be happening,’ " she told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

When Josh Byers left for Iraq, he told his mother not to worry. "He kept
saying, ‘Mom, the worst will be over when I get there,’" she said.

But she said she knew from his subsequent letters that her son was in danger.

"He’d done a lot of night missions," she said. "Him being a ranger, he got
used to doing a lot of things."

Mary and her husband, Lloyd Byers, now church missionaries in Guam, learned
of their son’s death when they arrived in Atlanta on Wednesday for a conference
and family visits after flying from Tokyo.

The couple’s two younger sons, Milam, 26, a former student at Anderson
College, and Jared, 21, who live in Nashville, met them at the airport.

Mrs. Byers said the Army first informed Josh Byers’ wife, Kim, who told Milam
and Jared Byers.

When Mary Byers got off the airplane and saw her sons, she sensed something
was wrong.

"They greeted us, but they just didn’t come up to us," she said. "They were
standing back. You know how crowds are when you come off a plane. They wanted
to tell us when it was a little more private.

"Our middle son put his arms around us," Mary Byers said. "We knew before he
said it."

Reed High counselor Bob White met Capt. Byers on his second day on the job.

"He came into the office and introduced himself," White said. "He said, ‘My
goal is go to an academy. I’m a junior. I’m going to need your help.’ "

White said as a senior, Josh was accepted at all three major military
academies — Army, Navy and Air Force. White said he chose West Point because he
thought its rules of conduct were the strictest.

"He said, ‘Even though I want to go into the Navy, I’m going into the Army.
Their honor code is better,’" White said.
"He was the nicest, politest kid you’d ever want to meet," he said.

Capt. Byers is the third soldier with northern Nevada ties to die in Iraq.

Marine Lance Cpl. Donald Cline, who also attended Reed, and Marine 1st Lt.
Fred Pokorney of Tonopah were killed during the early days of fighting in Iraq.

A memorial service will be held in Colorado for Capt. Byers and then he will
be brought back to Lisbon Presbyterian Church in Laurens for a burial.