Their ranks are thinning, but a handful of members of the group Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge gathered at the Port of Rochester on Memorial Day to honor their fallen comrades.
A rendition of taps punctuated the somber mood during the annual ceremony for the group.
92 year old Jack Foy was a 19 year old machine gunner with General George Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and bloodiest conflict ever fought in the history of the US Army.
He says Memorial Day is a time to remember those who lost their lives in that battle and many others.
"Just to remember in our case, 19 thousand young, mostly 19-20 year old kids got killed in that battle," he said.
Foy estimates 90 percent of the over 400 thousand service personnel killed in World War II were that age.
He says he thinks more people now get the point of Memorial Day.
"I think so. You know there was all the hard feelings and anti-American feelings during the Vietnam conflict and that, but I think most of the people have woken up to what those guys did, over there. They weren't there to have fun, and to be spit on and that coming back," he said.
Foy says when his Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge formed 25 years ago, there were 99 men.
Now they are down to a half a dozen, with the remaining members in their 90s.