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View a eulogy for Joshua Todd Byers, USMA '96, who passed away on July 23, 2003.

Joshua Todd Byers

West Point, 1996

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Grant Sinclair on September 22, 2008:

During my brief stint at West Point, CPT Byers was a cow in my academic year company. I got into some trouble with him and he had me write myself up on a 2-1. What he wrote in the comments has stayed with me.

"Cadet Sinclair,

Memorize this and live it:

'Accountability is taking responsibility before the fact rather than after the fact. It is taking a stand and standing by it. When those who are accountable are right, they take credit. When they're wrong, they take the heat. It's a fair exchange. Accountability is a way of working. Those who practice it have an unspoken respect for each other, and a visible disdain for the absent-minded apologizers, mumbling excuse-makers, and trembling fence-sitters who run from integrity as if it were the plague.'"

I am now a high school English teacher. Every year, I teach this quote.

CPT Byers will always be remembered.

Grant Sinclair

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