DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, February 2, 2016 — President Barack Obama will
award the Medal of Honor to a Navy special warfare operator in a Feb. 29
ceremony, White House officials announced today.
Senior Chief Petty Officer Edward Byers will receive the
nation’s highest award for battlefield gallantry for his actions while serving
as part of a team that rescued an American civilian being held hostage in
Afghanistan in December 2012.
Byers will be the 11th living service member to be awarded
the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan.
Byers, 37, was born in Toledo, Ohio, and he graduated from
Otesgo High School in Tontogany, Ohio, in June 1997. He holds a national
paramedics license and will graduate from Norwich University with a bachelor of
science degree in strategic studies and defense analysis later this year.
He entered the Navy in September 1998, attending boot camp
and Hospital Corpsman School at Great Lakes, Illinois. He served at Great Lakes
Naval Hospital, and then with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, at Camp
Lejeune, North Carolina. In 2002, he attended the Basic Underwater
Demolition/SEAL course, graduating from Class 242, and completed the Special
Operations Combat Medic Course in 2003.
Byers has been assigned to various East Coast SEAL teams,
and he completed eight overseas deployments with seven combat tours.
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