Biggest honor is representing service members killed while protecting American freedom, veterans say
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Andrew Jackson Higgins built shallow-draft boats in New Orleans for Delta oilmen and trappers in the 1930s; his military-grade version fueled America’s unstoppable amphibious attacks across the globe in World War II, from Normandy to Iwo Jima.
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.
World War II veterans Benjamin Berry, left, age 100, and Jacob Ruser, age 98, are grand marshals of the 2023 Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival. (Courtesy Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival)
"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.
"Ben and I agree we never would have expected something like this."
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.
Fleets of U.S. transport and landing craft disgorge reinforcements and supplies for U.S. troops in Normandy on July 14, 1944, five weeks after the D-Day invasion. U.S. Army veterans Benjamin Berry and Jacob Ruser, grand marshals of the 2023 Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival, both landed in Normandy in the weeks immediately after the initial invasion. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
"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.
U.S. Army soldiers PFC Jacob Ruser (left) and Cpl. Benjamin Berry during World War II. Ruser served with a medical unit in the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. Berry was a member of the 3rd US Army (ETO) Quartermaster Corps. Both men spoke with Fox News Digital this week. (Courtesy Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival )
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."
"The survivors were skin and bones. You could see the ribs coming right through their skin."
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.
By the order of the U.S. military authorities, the German population passed by the bodies of several hundred inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp, who should have been evacuated to the Dachau concentration camp and who starved or were murdered and buried by SS teams on the transport near Nammering in Passau between April 19-23, 1945. (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
"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.
Cpl. Benjamin Berry, 100, one of two World War II veterans serving as grand marshal of the 2023 Philadelphia Veterans Day parade. Among honors for his service, Cpl. Berry has been named a Knight of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, for his role in helping the U.S. Army liberate the European nation during World War II. (Courtesy Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival )
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.
U.S. Army PFC Jacob Ruser during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, winter 1944-45. (Courtesy Philadelphia Veterans Parade & Festival )
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.
"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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Kerry J. Byrne is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
