Since 2016, PCF has partnered with the VA Health System, funding Centers of Excellence around the country to speed research, treatments, and cures to Veterans with prostate cancer. Outside of the formal partnership, Veterans themselves are some of the strongest voices and most dedicated advocates. Meet Chuck Byers, a Vietnam Veteran and prostate cancer survivor who has dedicated his life to supporting his brothers-in-arms and has been an integral part of PCF’s efforts to raise awareness about the disease. Byers is a champion for research in the VA and for improving prostate cancer care for Veterans.
His call sign in Vietnam was “Big Bandaide,” and for the last 56 years, Byers has done his best to live up to it. “June 1, 1968, was my turning point,” he says. “That was my crucible.” What happened that day earned him a Purple Heart, and changed the course of the rest of his life.
“I had 23 days left in Vietnam, and then I was going home,” Chuck says. “I’d come close to getting injured before,” on ambush patrols, search-and-destroy missions, and many helicopter flights.
That day, Chuck was in the field hospital, working with the battalion surgeon and a friend, Dave Squires, from Louisville, Ky. “Dave only had nine days left,” Chuck says. “We got a phone message that our unit was ambushed and they needed replacement docs to go out and bring extra supplies.” Chuck told him not to go. “Dave was a conscientious objector. He never carried a weapon. But he said, ‘These are my guys. I need to be with them.’ And I said okay,” because that’s how Chuck felt, too; his unit was in trouble, and Big Bandaide was coming to help them.
But it didn’t work out that way. “They dropped us in the wrong area – not even with our unit! They dropped us on top of the 2nd and 39th, and we were the 2nd and 60th. And I had to walk point. Not too many medics had to walk point,” but Dave had no weapon and the surgeon with them only had a .45 pistol. “I just started walking to where the firing was, and hopefully we were coming on the right side!”
They arrived at a mess. “These guys were pretty chewed up. They had been ambushed, and there was a NVA (North Vietnamese Army) battalion around there.” Chuck got to work helping the injured. “I was on my third guy and I had to do a field trach,” the first one he’d ever attempted. “Just as I opened the throat and put the airway in, I heard this ‘Brrrrt,’ and I looked down, and I had been shot in the arm. Then I got shot in the gut. So I finished my trach.”
This happened at about 2 p.m. “We were still being fired on, and I just tried to suppress as much fire as possible.” He picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and started firing it. “I figured I’m not going to miss with that.”
Rescue finally came, four long hours later. They were picked up and taken back to the field hospital. “A priest was going by, giving Last Rites. He comes over and looks at me and he says, ‘Nah! I’ll see you in the morning.’ That was the best news I ever heard!”
Chuck was flown to Japan the next day, where surgeons worked to save his arm. ”That’s when I found out that Dave had made the ultimate sacrifice. He got killed.” Later, Chuck experienced survivor’s guilt. “Why did I survive, and not Dave? He only had nine days left.”
A Lifelong Mission to Help Other Veterans
He channeled that guilt into a lifelong mission to help other Veterans. Chuck, who lives in Phoenix, served as a Veteran Service Officer for many years, and now is the National Legislative Director for the Military Order of the Purple Heart. “I go to Washington and I fight. What are they going to do, send me back to Vietnam?”
Chuck is also the Chair of Veterans Healthcare for the Vietnam Veterans of America. In this role, he has worked tirelessly to improve healthcare and benefits for Veterans. He was there in the White House Rose Garden when President Donald Trump signed the MISSION Act in 2018. “I had my glasses on, but they changed and got dark because of the sun. I looked like an aging Secret Service guy!” Chuck has a picture from that day. He is standing next to Senator Tom Cotton, and former Senators Elizabeth Dole and Martha McSally. When Trump signed the act, he handed Chuck the pen. “I thanked him and he said, ‘No. Thank you for your service.’”
This act brought major changes to health care for Veterans within the VA system, and gave them greater choice and timeliness of care with access to health care outside the system. “The VA has changed a lot, I’m glad to say.”
After he was wounded in Vietnam, Chuck stayed in the military and went to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing, where he earned his RN degree. “I was at Walter Reed for quite a while; I was stationed on the Presidential Ward,” and took care of former President Dwight Eisenhower, as well as several U.S. Congressmen and Senators. When he left the service, he stayed in the medical field, working for companies that make endoscopic and arthroscopic equipment. His strong medical background has helped immeasurably in his advocacy for Veterans.
Most recently, he has fought – with success – to rescue more than 80,000 biospecimens from the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. “These were left over from the Ranch Hand Study,” an observational study from 1982 to 2002, looking at adverse events that might be related to exposure to Agent Orange and other military herbicides in Vietnam. “They’re just sitting there,” Chuck says. “They’re still viable, and they are now being released to the Los Angeles VA research facility,” where they can be studied by a new generation of scientists with access to the latest genetic and molecular biology research tools.
“Chuck has been a tireless advocate to ensure these precious samples are entrusted to researchers serving Veterans,” says Rebecca Levine, PCF VP of Government Affairs, Chief of Staff, and National Director of the PCF Veterans Health Initiative. “We are so grateful for all he has done, and all he continues to do to ensure that Veterans get the health care they deserve.” Levine notes that Byers has lent his considerable voice to prostate cancer awareness as part of the Home Run Challenge, PCF’s annual partnership with Major League Baseball. He and his wife, Sherri, attended an Arizona Diamondbacks game in 2023. The Home Run Challenge has raised more than $70 million for breakthroughs in scientific research and raises critical awareness through a PCF presence at more than 500 games in every ballpark in North America. It also has featured some of the greatest moments in baseball history and more than 40 Hall-of-Famers.
“I Hit the Mother Lode”
Chuck was exposed to Agent Orange. “I hit the mother lode,” he says. “I was a combat medic down in the delta, where they sprayed a lot of defoliants.” He has coronary artery disease; in 2013, he had a triple bypass. He is a prostate cancer survivor, who had a prostatectomy in 2014. In February 2024, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and had surgery to remove a third of his liver. He is also diabetic, and has neuropathy. “All of these are presumptives of Agent Orange exposure. I think I hit ‘em all.”
When he moved to Arizona, “I had a real problem with the VA. Phoenix was the epicenter” of many care delivery roadblocks and shortcomings. So Chuck went to see John McCain, himself a Veteran and a U.S. Senator from Arizona. “They told me it would be a year before I could see a primary care physician. I couldn’t wait that long! I was enrolled in the VA in Philadelphia, and was getting my medications from the VA.” Chuck followed the chain of command procedures. Then he went to the Office of the Attorney General and filed a complaint. Soon, he got in to see a doctor. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he was able to see an excellent surgeon outside the VA system, in Scottsdale – a result of the MISSION act he had advocated for.
Toxic Exposure: the (Bad) Gift that Keeps on Giving
“I’m still fighting,” Chuck says, for many projects for Veterans, including the Comprehensive Caregivers Program. “That’s long-term care for our demographic in Vietnam.” But it’s not just combat troops and Blue Water Navy and Coast Guard Vietnam Veterans (who served on ships operating on the waters of Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 and were exposed to herbicides including Agent Orange) who are dealing with service-related toxic exposures. Veterans who served at Fort McClellan, Alabama, which was involved in chemical warfare training, were exposed to many chemical, biological, and radioactive compounds. Marines who were stationed at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 were exposed to contaminated water. Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were exposed to toxic agents in burn pits; in fact, more than 20 illnesses believed to be linked to these toxins are now covered by the PACT Act (the 2022 law expanding VA health care and benefits for Veterans exposed to various toxins). Pilots have been subjected to radar and electronics transmissions.
Chuck is fighting for them all. “We didn’t ask to be exposed to Agent Orange and the other defoliants.” He wants to help younger Veterans who have suffered toxic exposures, as well, “to get them presumptives, so they don’t have to fight as hard as we Vietnam Veterans had to.”
One point he wants you to know: “I’m not bashing the VA. These are just things that happened. I’m very happy with how they’re treating me for my liver cancer. “I have a mission to continue, and I hope to be around to continue this mission,” he says. “Right now, my fight is making sure our Veterans have filed for their disability claims. I get calls all the time from Veterans. I try to help them, to make sure that they’re at least following up and fighting. So many times, Veterans will just give up.” For example, he has talked to several Veterans with prostate cancer who are dealing with side effects of treatment, such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. “They just felt that it was part of the disease. I said, no, you need to fight for these residuals,” for monthly compensation provided by the VA.
“That’s my goal and my mission, to help Veterans and advocate strongly for them,” he says. “Somebody’s got to do it, I’m thankful that I still can, and I will do it as long as I can.”
Big Bandaide will never forget. “There’s a reason why I survived. That’s why I want to give back.”
