WASHINGTON — Vietnam veteran Earnie Simpkins and his wife Mary arrived more than an hour early Sunday to find the best spot to watch the National Veterans Day Parade as it rolled down Constitution Avenue — filled with military bands, veterans groups and floats decked out in patriotic red, white and blue.

It marked just the second year that the National Veterans Day Parade was staged in the nation’s capital. For Simpkins, who served as a lance corporal with the Marine Corps, the parade offered a belated thank you for his service in Vietnam nearly a half-century ago.

“It’s a good day when we remember our veterans,” said Simpkins, 79, traveled from Roanoke, Va. “People in the military are the most important people to the U.S. and its future. Enough is not done to honor and thank them.”

He said the parade was a highlight of a tour that the couple was taking of military sites in Washington that included the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The National Veterans Day Parade marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

The three-hour parade, which started at noon under cloudy skies, featured military marching bands that included the National Guard Band, Navy Band, U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps and the 3rd Army Fife and Drug Corps. Several high school and college bands from across the nation also participated.

The event also was a fundraiser for the nonprofit National Veterans Parade Foundation, which collected donations for veteran causes, including the Veterans Food Bank and the Veterans Canine Companionship for Suicide Prevention.

Veterans, their families and advocates were out in force Sunday, as throngs of people gathered along the parade route. Many said the event was a chance to share stories of military experience and show appreciation for the contributions of service members.

“There’s a lot of camaraderie [when] military people just hang out together,” said Sammie Leonard of Maryland, a 23-year Army veteran who drove his motorcycle in the parade.

Leonard, who served in Iraq and Kuwait, represented the Veterans of Foreign Wars and was accompanied by about two dozen riders from the veterans advocacy group. They wore black leather jackets with an insignia representing their military service.

Some of the parade-goers said they only recently learned about the event and asked why it has taken so long for a national parade to organize for honoring veterans.

“Better late than never,” said Vietnam veteran Jerry Davis, 78, of Dublin, Va.

Davis and his wife Rachel pulled up folding chairs next to the Simpkinses in a grassy spot off Constitution Avenue, right at the parade’s starting point on 7th Avenue.

“We don’t want to miss a thing,” Rachel Davis said, as she zipped up her windbreaker and handed her husband a water bottle.

Jerry Davis was drafted into the Army in 1969 at age 20. He served as a military police officer in Vietnam, a role he described as dangerous. But he said the sacrifices of service members were not part of the national conversation when he returned home from war.

“It’s hard to ever make up for that,” Davis said. “Each day came with the very real risk that we might die.”

Todd Kemery, national director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Minnesota chapter, rolled in the parade along with about a half-dozen other veterans in wheelchairs.

“Anything we can do to help honor our veterans is vital,” said Kemery, a Marine corporal who served from 1978-1983.

He said his job in the military involved work as mechanic with a helicopter squadron. But he suffered serious injuries in an accident in his final days of service as he was preparing to transition to civilian life.

“For the last 20 years, my job at the [Paralyzed Veterans of America] has been to advocate for former service members like me and be of service to them,” said Kemery, a quadriplegic. “Veterans with disabilities do not have to be stuck at home but can find meaning and purpose in their lives.”

Hannah Wise — one of the parade participants who was not a veteran — rode in a vintage Ford Mustang convertible, waving to the crowd. As Mrs. America 2024, Wise said she was surprised that this was only the second year that the parade was held in Washington.

“When I learned about the parade, my first thought was, ‘Why haven’t we been doing this all along?’ We should be celebrating our veterans in a parade every year at the nation’s capital,” said Wise, who is from Nashville.

Behind the wheel of the 1967 convertible was veteran Bill Barfield, a former Air Force sergeant. Barfield, 77, of Virginia said he served for four years in active duty from 1966-1970. He was assigned to installations in Germany, where he handled maintenance management of electronic systems.

But his father, Herman Barfield, spent a career in the military from 1941 to 1969, his Air Force service spanning World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. He retired as a lieutenant colonel after receiving the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam.

Barfield displayed his father’s service medals on the Mustang’s dashboard.

“The military has been my whole life,” said Barfield, who has worked as a civilian in the defense industry for 50 years. “The military is a global family. As soon as you meet someone from the military, you become foxhole buddies. You both know about the sacrifices and risks of having served. It is a tightknit group.”