J. Keith Byrd - Print Biography

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J. Keith Byrd

SPS - Army

Highest Rank: SPS
Foreign Service Length: 1 Year
Continental Service Length: 2 Years
Location of Service: Fort Jackson South Carolina, Redstone Arsenal Alabama, Da Nang Vietnam, Aberdeen Proving Grounds Maryland
Gender: male
Basic Training: Fort Jackson, South Carolina
Military Position: Perimeter Guard and Avionic Repair
Place of Separation: Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland
From City: Pickerington
From State: Ohio
Current City: Pickerington
Current State: Ohio
Date of Birth: 09/1947

Awards and Citations

Army Commendation Medal (Byrd had been assisting someone who received a Bronze Star. He and his friend had walked by a truck that was filled with grenades, when they noticed that the grenades were live (about to explode). They realized that the enemy must have done this, so they quickly exposed of the live grenades, saving part of the base camp. Even though Byrds friend had noticed the grenades Byrd had contributed in getting rid of them.)

9/25/1967 - 9/12/1970

Honored by Trenton Morris, Family Friend

1967 In 1967 Byrd had enlisted himself in the Vietnam War. He had enlisted himself to get a military status, so he did not actually have to go to Vietnam. When he signed up he wanted to be in the computer department, but by the end of his service he had gone to Vietnam and back.

1967 His first days of service he remembers being in bootcamp. The things that he and his fellow soildiers went through took them away from their individuality. Byrd still remembers his instructors yelling at him to this day, as he went through the parrellel bars and drag ass hill. The only reason why he made it through his training is because he didn't have a choice not to.

1967 When Byrd went to Vietnam he arrived in Siagon, spent most of his time in Da Nang, and ended up in Hue. His memory of arriving in Vietnam was when he was in Da Nang. He had a choice to be a perimeter guard or a door gunner. Byrd had thought about it and realized it would be easier and more safe to be assigened to perimeter guard.

1967 One of the many times that Byrd saw combat he remembers the monthly attacks on his base. The attacks were by rockets which were not accurate at all. He also remembers getting attacked by morter rounds 3 times a week. The morters were more acurate then the rockets, but still were not that affective. The attacks were almost always at 10:00 pm every time.

1967 During the times of combat our Byrds base there were only a few casualties. A total of 200 soildeirs were wounded or killed on Byrds base. Out of the many attacks only two of them caused these casualties. This is because a rocket hit in the middle of a group of soildiers watching a movie. The other was when some soildiers were in a tent just hanging out when a rocket hit next to the tent.

1967 The one time Byrd was close to getting killed he was sitting in his tent with a bunch of guys, and a bunch of morter rounds hit next to the tent. Some of the shrapnel from the morter rounds had got stuck in him, but that was it for injury related events.

1967 To entertain themselves Byrd and his friends made bets on different stunts they could do around the base. Such as one stunt when Byrd made 25 dollars. A bunch of his friends bet Byrd that he would die if he jumped into some barbed-wire, and Byrd knew if he jumped on the barbed-wire with his vest on he would not get injured. So Byrd jumped straight on the babed-wire with his vest, not getting injured, and made 25 buck!