Bob Byrd: Military Man

By Scott Nicholson

Bob Byrd has had a full and varied career, but it’s his military service that evokes the most pride.

Byrd was born in the Valle Crucis community in 1924, the middle child of nine children. He grew up in a farm family, and his mother was a renowned quilter whose work is collected to this day. They were raised on hard work and church and Byrd noted that even with so many children, both his parents took the time to learn to read and write.

Tapping a photograph bearing the youthful version of his portrait, Bob Byrd said, “This uniform is what it’s all about.” Photo by Scott Nicholson

Byrd went to Cove Creek High School, walking two miles down Clark’s Creek to catch the bus. A self-described “regular old country boy,” he was hired as a procurement clerk for the engineer who was building the Pentagon.

Finishing his school work just before graduation, he went to Washington, D.C., where his job was to find any equipment or supplies that were needed to keep the construction going on the military’s new headquarters.

By this time the United States had been involved in World War II for nearly two years, and Byrd said he was the only young man walking down the street in a new suit and people began staring at him. “I felt obligated, so I quit work to join the Army air force and be a bombardier,” he said. “Then I decided to be part of the maritime service, not knowing about all the German U-boats. I was assigned to Ft. Bragg, where one Saturday I washed 3,300 trays in the mess hall. I decided to quit but before I could I was shipped out with 48,000 troops to Scotland. and classified as an engineer.”

That was where Byrd was given the assignment that would follow him throughout his career: a military investigator with the graves registration service, assigned to collecting bodies, finding out the cause of death and documenting and retrieving each soldier’s personal effects.

In April 1944, assigned to England, he participated in exercises that he learned many years later were mock invasions of German-occupied territory in Europe. In essence, they were trial runs for D-Day, and German U-boats attacked during the exercises. Byrd and his group fished 600 bodies out of the English channel after “an unknown battle.”

Later that summer, the real invasion occurred, and Byrd hit the beaches of Normandy. “I went in with everything I owned on my back and water up to my neck.”

Byrd’s unit had the duty of removing and treating the wounded, then removing the bodies of the slain. He said there were 2,600 corpses on the beach that day. Byrd drew on his strong Christian faith to deal with the grisly task.

“We were trained for everything that needed to be done,” he said. “I knew the Lord wanted me to just do what I had to do.”

Byrd was also a war crimes investigator, figuring out how people died. He said even the enemy casualties were treated with respect and given a burial that included prayers or a moment of silence.

He was also part of the search team for Glenn Miller, the famed orchestra leader who led performances for the troops. Miller was lost at sea and his body never recovered.

Byrd still wanted to join the paratrooper and glider units, though he couldn’t join without his mother’s permission since he was under 21, and his mother thought it was too dangerous. Byrd said 70 percent of paratroopers died in action. “It was a one-way trip,” he said.

He was on board a transport ship bound for Japan, since the Japanese continued to fight after the Germans had surrendered. Peace was declared that night, and Byrd said, “I never saw the fireworks. I made it and I have one credit to give and that was the Good Lord smiling on me.”

Byrd remained in the military and in 1950 was shipped to Korea. He was in some of the heaviest fighting of the Korean War, with “no penicillin, one blanket, and two pairs of socks.” The temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 40 below in two days, and he was injured in one action which caused him to “urinate cherry wine” for the next eight months.

He made three beachhead landings under enemy fire and once a 500-pound bomb landed in his barracks but didn’t explode. Back home, he was part of the hydrogen bomb tests at Desert Rock, Nev., where he said he “bled through the eyes and ears” and believes he may have suffered eye damage that still plagues him at 83.

His new service job was inspecting military posts, and he also became interested in politics. He was on duty in Cuba during some of the United States standoffs with Fidel Castro, and also performed background checks on those who became officers.

In the latter portion of his 28-year career, he was a military recruiter during the Vietnam War, which he calls his saddest experience in the military. “I’d see these guys go off, and later the mothers would call up and ask if I’d do them the honor of attending the funeral,” he said.

After his service career, he became active in political campaigning and fund raising for the Republican Party, though he never ran for office himself. He became successful in real estate and religious organizations, returned to his family roots as a gardener, and also pursued a passion for big-game hunting that led to several African safaris. He was a guest at Pres. Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1980.

“There’s only one answer to it,” he said. “I didn’t do this on my own.”

Tapping a photograph bearing the youthful version of his portrait, he said, “This uniform is what it’s all about. Just like today in Iraq.”