Floyd M. Byers was born to William and Maude Byers on 1929 February 8 in Tracy City, Tennessee. He enlisted in the Army in 1948 because his father became ill and he needed to support the family. After initially training and working as a dental assistant he went to jump school and served as a public relations officer and newspaper editor in Germany between 1952 and 1955. During this time, he married his first wife, who was a German woman. After his first tour he moved back to America with his new wife, went to warrant officer school, and trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1960, he returned to Germany for a four year tour. He came back to America in 1964 to continue training in various helicopters but was deployed to Vietnam in 1965. He flew primarily Chinook helicopters for the rest of his career. His first Vietnamese tour was in the highlands, where the trees and clouds protected his 98 foot helicopter, but his second was in the much more dangerous Mekong Delta. During his service, he obtained his degree in Political Science from Saint Leo College in Saint Leo, Florida. Byers had one son and two daughters. His son went into the Navy in 1977 and retired in 2001. Byers' first wife passed away in 1985 and he remarried an elementary school friend and moved to the Powell area of Knoxville. Floyd M. Byers died on January 26th, 2015, in Knoxville, Tennessee.