Unique hero missing from VE-Day ceremony ‘Jumpin' Joe’ Beyrle joined Russian forces By Preston Mendenhall Correspondent NBC News Updated: 12:52 p.m. ET May 9, 2005MOSCOW - As thousands of Russian war heroes and a handful of invited American veterans marked the anniversary of World War II’s end in Moscow, there was a notable absence in the crowd: Joseph Beyrle, the only U.S. soldier to fight for the Americans and the Soviets.
Beyrle died in December on a visit to Toccoa, Georgia, the legendary training ground of his celebrated 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. At 81, he was planning to attend the VE-Day celebrations on Monday in the Russian capital.
For Beyrle, known as “Jumpin’ Joe,” Russia was a country that took him into its heart and celebrated him as its own hero.
'Screamin' Eagle' taken in by Russians As a 20-year-old from Muskegon, Mich., Beyrle was captured by the Germans several days after D-Day in June 1944. A member of the 101st Airborne Division’s “Screamin’ Eagles,” Beyrle spent months in German prison camps and endured repeated torture at the hands of Hitler’s SS before making a daring escape and joining Soviet troops advancing toward Berlin.
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