If it wasn't the Greatest Generation...

...it certainly was the Toughest Generation.

From this blog, the story of Robert Cone, one of the 'Filthy Thirteen', part of the 101st Airborne Division, who parachuted into France in advance of D-Day.
Captured and sent to POW camps in Germany, he was liberated by the Russians and fought alongside them on the Eastern Front.
Cone walked to freedom through Poland, Russia and Romania, journeyed by ship to Egypt and was eventually flow to Italy, finally making his way home.
Cone finally received his medals (the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, POW medal, and a Presidential Unit Citation) in October of 2006.

Rico says anyone who walked out of a POW camp and then halfway across Europe is one tough sumbitch...