In remembrance of his brothers

Medal of Honor recipient Edward C. Byers Jr. had planned to enjoy some downtime during Memorial Day weekend. But then he quickly jumped at an opportunity to participate in the first National Poppy Day, coordinated by The American Legion.

“We are here to honor the fallen and support the Gold Star families,” said Byers, a Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator and Navy SEAL. “It’s really important.”

Byers first learned of the plans for National Poppy Day at the Veterans Inaugural Ball — Salute to Heroes. At the ball, guests were awed by a large, multi-paneled poppy wall, courtesy of USAA. Poppies — one for each of the more than 641,000 U.S. servicemembers killed since World War I — towered over ball attendees.

“I didn’t know much about poppies before that,” Byers said. “I read more about what the poppy represents. It just became much more powerful to me. I wanted to come here and be part of all the veterans riding down to the wall.”

As part of National Poppy Day, Byers led hundreds of American Legion Riders to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for a candlelight vigil on Friday night.

“The enormity of what that wall represents is like the enormity of the stars on the World War II Memorial in D.C., each one representing 100 people,” he said. “It’s so hard to wrap your head around that many casualties. You have to really associate each poppy to one specific person.”

Byers wears the medal for his fallen brothers.

“I have had two major events where my brothers have been killed in battle, Nic Checque and Clark Schwedler,” he said. “Nic Checque was my teammate who was part of the operation where I received the Medal of Honor. To me, that medal is inseparable from his death. I wear the medal and the poppy in honor of Nic Checque and Clark Schwedler.”

On this solemn weekend, Byers also draws inspiration from the first veteran he knew, his father, Edward Byers Sr.

“My dad was part of the Greatest Generation, an extremely hard-working man,” he said. “He joined the Navy, did a couple of years at the end of World War II. He did his part and then the war ended, then he became a police officer, firefighter and owned his own construction company. He wouldn’t complain about anything, just worked hard and carved out his piece of the pie in life. It was an honor — 60 years after his service — that our country honors his service and he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.”

Poppy Day serves a vital role, book-ending with Memorial Day, to raise awareness of the true warriors and heroes throughout the weekend, Byers says.

“All too often, the media negligently misuse the words hero and warrior and apply them to a celebrity or a politician,” he said. “They characterize these people as heroes or warriors and it’s really an injustice to how we define what a warrior and hero are. And that is what this weekend is absolutely about. Starting now with National Poppy Day and book-ending it with Memorial Day, what that represents is 950,000 combat and theater-related deaths throughout its history. Those are the heroes; that’s who warriors are — to answer a call when your nation needs it.”

As Americans celebrate the long weekend, Byers hopes that the real meaning of the holiday reaches them.

“All too often we lose what (President) Kennedy told us, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ If people just stopped to think about why we have this holiday, maybe they might stop and think about how they might help our country.”