- November 2, 2024
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It was a typical first Friday of the month at Wolves Head Pizza & Wings off State Road 64 in Lakewood Ranch, with 10 people crowded around a table.
A row of beers was awaiting lunch orders to join the party.
It could be a scene from any restaurant, except this gathering was special.
The veterans at the table had fought for the U.S. military in countries such as Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Bosnia and Iraq.
Members of the Braden River VFW Post 12055 and their spouses meet at Wolves Head on the first Friday of every month. On this particular day, the conversation turned to the upcoming Tribute to Heroes parade May 28 and the fact retired U.S. Army Col. Gill Ruderman, one of their own and an East County resident, was chosen as this year’s grand marshal.
“It couldn’t have gone to a more deserving individual. He’s been giving back to this community for so many years,” said fellow VFW member Dave Daily, who lives in Mill Creek and who was the parade's grand marshal in 2019.
Daily said in 2019 that there were more deserving soldiers than him in the area to be the grand marshal. He said Ruderman was one of them.
Ruderman said Daily is like an adopted son, and that summed up the family-style atmosphere around the table at Wolves Head. They tell their stories, but they also look out for each other.
Sarasota's Barbara Sweet-Iredale's husband, Bill, died in 2018 at 92 years old. Bill spent his 18th birthday on the beach at Iwo Jima during World War II.
Even though Bill is gone now, the group welcomes Sweet-Iredale to the gatherings.
“They still include me,” Sweet-Iredale said. “Once you’re with a veteran’s organization, they look after you.”
Ruderman embodies Sweet-Iredale’s statement as he has been looking out for fellow veterans, especially those in Manatee County, for years. Not only is he an active VFW member, he volunteers for organizations that support veterans, such as Southeastern Guide Dogs and Tidewell Hospice.
“My father was in the Army," Ruderman said. "I don’t think I ever knew of anything else I wanted to do.”
Military life kept Ruderman on the move throughout his childhood and his Army career. Up until moving into Greenfield Plantation with his wife Florence in 2001, he had never lived in one place for more than five years.
Florence is a huge part of his life, as Ruderman acknowledges on the 29th day of each month. On May 29, a day after the parade, they will be celebrating their 24th anniversary. But that day will start the same as the 29th of each month.
Ruderman will write a note that says, "Happy anniversary," and he puts it in Florence's coffee cup.
"He's the nicest person I've ever met in my life," Florence said of her husband. "Truly, he is amazing."
Ruderman began his career at West Point, graduating in 1967. Since the Army needed officers in Vietnam at the time, West Point graduates weren't put through basic training and reported straight to active duty units after some Ranger and airborne schooling.
Although he was among the nation's elite by graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, he found that his superiors let him know quickly his credentials didn't make him special in a war zone.
“My first boss told me to my face on my first day on duty, ‘I tried to have you diverted to another unit because I do not like West Pointers,'" Ruderman remembered.
He earned respect, and two Purple Hearts, on his first tour with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam.
In 1968, a fellow soldier was moving something off the ground when he set off a bobby trap. Ruderman was hit by fragments from the explosion. lodging in his lower chest. Two other soldiers were injured as well, but all three lived through the ordeal.
A first lieutenant at the time, Ruderman finished his tour, took a 30-day leave and had the choice to accept an assignment somewhere other than Vietnam. He chose to return.
Back in Vietnam with his division, Ruderman was part of a helicopter crew that was doing reconnaissance, circling over a Viet Cong force. The helicopter came under heavy fire, with five rounds penetrating the helicopter.
Ruderman, then a Lt. Col., was shot in the foot during the flurry and had to be evacuated to Japan.
He might of thought of himself as unlucky at the time as he was the only member of the crew to be injured. Two days later, though, he found that fate might have blessed him.
"Two days later, I’m getting put on a stretcher to go on a plane to Japan, and I look over, and two of the other three people (in the helicopter crew) were on stretchers," he said. "The chopper had crashed.”
Those two men had suffered compression fractures to their backs, however, they recovered.
After his first tour, Ruderman was back in Vietnam for a second tour from 1970 to 1971. Fortunately, he wasn't injured again.
By 1972, Ruderman was back in the U.S., playing rugby. He started playing at West Point and went back to the sport during his first year of graduate school at the University of Florida.
At the time, the Army offered officers a options to earn their master's degrees while still in the military. The exchange for Ruderman was to teach ROTC at the university. He taught for two more years after earning his degree.
After 26 years of military service and a three-year foray into sales, Ruderman took a different kind of tour for himself. He traveled throughout New Zealand and Australia with the UF Alumni Rugby Club.
Ruderman knows he’s fortunate to have survived a war zone. He is simultaneously proud and humble when it comes to his numerous recognitions. In 2016, Ruderman was named Manatee County’s Veteran of the Year, and in 2021, he was inducted into the Florida Veterans’ Hall of Fame.
“I would say that the idea of being considered for these honors is as rewarding, if not more so, than being selected,” he said.
The consensus at the Wolves Head table was that Ruderman's honor as the Tribute to Heroes Parade grand marshal was as fitting as it was overdue.
