Summit Co. group continues search for ‘lost’ veterans

AKRON (AP) — It was two years ago that Judy Anne Davis was walking along grave markers at Hillside Memorial Park, looking for the graves of veterans, when she stumbled across a familiar name.

The marker for Staff Sgt. Marcus Randy Byous was partially covered by grass and leaves.

Davis, 68, of Stow, remembered having Byous in her English class at Akron’s Central High School in the 1960s.

Byous, 21, was a crew chief on an Army attack helicopter and was killed in Vietnam on May 10, 1969, along with three other crewmen.

Davis, the cemetery chairwoman of the Summit County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, had been in the cemetery that day searching for names to add to a growing list of deceased Summit County veterans.

When she got home and checked her database, she found that her former student Byous was not on her organization’s list of veterans.

She said the oversight shows the importance of her group’s check of the markers of each and every grave in the county.

About 64,000 names of veterans have been found so far, but Davis and others with the genealogical organization believe the list is far from complete.

The organization started gathering names in the 1970s and 1980s as it was collecting grave marker inscriptions and discovered perhaps 200 names at that time, Davis said.

The project continued in 2007, Davis said, with names being added by searching cemeteries and public databases and reading newspaper obituaries.

As of 2008, the list had reached 57,000 names. It continues to grow and now includes the names of Summit County soldiers whose bodies were never found.

“We are fairly confident that could only be scratching the surface,” Davis said.

Howland Davis, 67, a Vietnam veteran from Akron who helps in the hunt, said the list has grown in part with the addition of veterans from Summit County who have been buried in the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Rittman.

Howland Davis, who is not related to Judy Anne Davis, suspects there are more names to be found among veterans who were cremated and not buried.

“Unfortunately, there is no Web site to go to,” he said.

Kelly Holderbaum, president of the Summit County chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, said the search for veterans’ names has been “a labor of love” for the members.

“We want to make sure that all of those that have served will not be forgotten and can be given the honor they deserve,” she said.

Among the missing, she said, are likely “military that were cremated and buried elsewhere, military that might have slipped through the cracks.”

In the case of Byous, his gravestone noted that he had been killed in Vietnam, yet his name was not on the list.

His brother, Glenn Byous, 64, of Mogadore, said he is glad his brother’s name was picked up by Davis.

The loss of his brother changed his life, Byous said.

“It is still even hard to talk about it,” said Byous, a retired carpenter.

More than four decades later, he still has dreams about his brother and still says “it is hard to believe” that he is gone.

Byous said his brother volunteered for service and was scheduled to return to the United States in just 16 days when he was killed.

He remembers the trip with his mother, Mary Katherine Byous, to Akron-Canton Airport in the spring of 1968. He said he had a feeling he would never see his brother again.

“I cried my eyes out,” Byous said.

He said his brother had been ordered to stay back in a tent and man the radios when he heard a cry for help. He rallied another helicopter crew and set out on a rescue mission.

“Both helicopters were shot down,” Byous said.

His older brother, David Byous, lives in Cuyahoga Falls. Both of his parents, Mary Katherine and Luther Pete Byous, are deceased.

Glenn Byous said he wants people to remember the sacrifice his brother made for his country.

Judy Anne Davis said that unfortunately, it can be difficult to get records of deceased veterans, like Byous, who died overseas.

But when she saw his grave, she immediately remembered her student.

“He was a neat kid,” she said.

Touching his grave marker “really hit me,” she said.

Davis, who has searched area cemeteries for Revolutionary War graves, said the fact that Byous’ name was not listed shows the need to keep an accurate record of all veterans.

“They don’t have to be 200 years old to be lost,” she said.