World War II veterans Benjamin Berry and Jacob Ruser were surrounded by overwhelming German forces at the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944-45.
This autumn, just ahead of Veterans Day, they'll be surrounded by thankful Americans on the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
U.S. Army Cpl. Berry, 100, and PFC Ruser, 98, will be the grand marshals on Sunday, Nov. 5, of the Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival.
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"Uncle Sam gave us our discharge papers after the war. And now here we are," Berry said of the recent whirlwind experience to Fox News Digital this week during a joint interview over Zoom.
"I would say it's quite an honor they considered us and offer us this kind of respect," Ruser added during the same interview.
"Ben and I agree we never would have expected something like this," Ruser added.
Both men are members of American Legion Post 405 in Philadelphia and veterans of the Battle of the Bulge Association, Delaware Valley Chapter at the Chapel of the Four Chaplains.
They've been active in veterans affairs for decades, and became close friends, they say, over the past decade or so.
The biggest honor, the men agreed, is to represent the Americans who fought in World War II as young men but who never returned to enjoy any acclaim, respect or honor for their achievements as older men.
"They gave their lives or their lives were taken from them," said Berry.
The service members killed in World War II, he added, "gave Americans their freedom and we're doing our best to walk in their footsteps and make sure they're remembered."
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Both men landed in Normandy in the immediate weeks after the initial D-Day invasion, serving across France, Belgium, Luxembourg and into the heart of Nazi Germany.
The two GIs were among the men who survived the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's desperate last-ditch surprise offensive in Dec. 1944 and Jan. 1945.
The German troops wore white camouflage uniforms on the snowy battlefield.
The Americans rushed to the battlefield in the typical olive-drab army uniforms.
"It was one of the coldest winters they ever had," Berry recalled. "We stood out so much. They could pick us off just like we were flies in a bottle of milk."
Heroic GIs, including Berry and Ruser, withstood the desperate onslaught and eventually turned the tide of battle back in favor of the Allies.
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The two men also witnessed the true terror of Hitler's National Socialist Party and that group's effort to exterminate the Jewish people.
Both Berry and Ruser helped liberate the concentration camps.
"The survivors were skin and bones. That's what they looked like coming out," said Ruser. "You could see the ribs coming right through their skin."
German guards fled as Allied troops closed in on the camps.
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The few survivors who could walk escaped the camps, while advancing GIs passed them on the side of the road.
The Americans had to resist the instinctive desire to help, most notably with food.
"We were told not to feed them, or it could kill them," Ruser said.
In addition to receiving wartime service medals and honors in the United States, both men have been recognized by European nations grateful for their liberation in World War II.
Berry was named a Knight of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Ruser received the Chevalier-French Legion of Honor medal.
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Berry and Ruser represent the millions of men and women of the Greatest Generation who fought and defeated tyranny across both oceans in World War II — but whose living heroes are now just the few and the proud.
About 16.5 million Americans served in uniform during World War II. Yet only about 240,000 are still alive, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Berry served with a segregated unit in the war.
He is one of only about 20,000 living Black World War II veterans.
"Corporal Berry and PFC Ruser continue to inspire and lead by example," said Anthony Murphy, president of the Philadelphia Veterans Parade, in a release ahead of Nov. 5.
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"We are honored to have these men as grand marshals of the parade and festival and to share and honor their stories of service and bravery," he also said.
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