As Veterans Day approaches, it's important to acknowledge the population of World War II heroes that is shrinking by the day.

There are said to be only 240,000 World War II veterans left of the 16 million who returned home

Anthony Riolo, of New City, served in the Navy, shipping soldiers and supplies back and forth to Japan.

"If it wasn't for the atomic bomb, over 1 million people - soldiers and allied personnel would have been killed," he says.

The 95-year-old is one of roughly 14,000 of these heroes still alive in New York - a major loss he sees in his own VFW.

"We had always 30 people. From 30, it went down to 20, 18 and then all of a sudden there's only about 12 of us now in the meeting now," he says.

Alan Moskin, of Nanuet, served in the U.S. Army under Gen. George Patton, liberating concentration camps

"I lost a lot of close buddies - too darn many. I can tell you that I was just one of the lucky ones," says the 94-year-old.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 234 World War II vets pass away each day, with the remaining expected to last one final decade.

The veterans encourage people to thank those who answered the call when the country needed it most.