Their ranks are thinning, year-by-year. World War II veterans, some who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, marked Veterans Day.

The Battle of the Bulge vets held an annual ceremony in Charlotte. The ceremony was attended by people of all ages to mark the largest battle fought during the second World War, 68 years ago.

More than 19,000 men were killed and over 62,000 were wounded, captured or went missing in action.

"After a few years it gets easy to forget things, and we don't want this, in our case Battle of the Bulge Veterans, to forget this. We want the Battle remembered. It was the largest and bloodiest battle in American history," said John Foy, Battle of the Bulge vet.

The local Battle of the Bulge Veterans group was deactivated in 2009 after local membership dipped to below 50 members.