No nonsense, humble, focused, Byers on Monday will receive the military’s highest award -- the Medal of Honor -- for helping rescue an American doctor in Afghanistan in 2012.
He’ll shake President Obama’s hand and acknowledge the loss of a treasured colleague. Later, Senior Chief Byers -- the sixth Navy SEAL to receive the award and the first living one since 1998 -- will gladly slip back into the shadows, and the exquisitely dangerous, secretive work that has become his life’s calling.
"As you get older, of course your body starts to break down a little bit," Byers, 36, told USA TODAY in an interview at the Pentagon. "Still fit enough to keep going."
No doubt about that. Byers, blue-eyed, baby-faced and bearing a black silicone wedding band (easy to wear during workouts), intends to keep serving for as long as he can. He talked about what inspired him to enlist, why he keeps serving and the importance of saying as little about that action as possible.