Thousands hit the streets for New York City Veterans Day Parade

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Thousands of people are marching up Fifth Avenue Tuesday to mark Veterans Day and show their support for the members of our nation's armed services.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, serving as grand marshal of the parade, says serving in the Marines taught him everything he knows about leadership.

Organizers say there are more than 20,000 participants, including veterans dating back to World War II.

Sixty-five-year-old Jimmy Scannapieco, of Staten Island, joined a parade unit of veterans who had all earned a Purple Heart in battle.

The retired construction worker said he has "no bad feelings about Vietnam," although he was wounded by shrapnel there in 1970.

The parade also featured a float carrying rapper Ice-T plus six military dogs and their handlers.

The float was funded by philanthropist Lois Pope, who works with organizations that reunite military dogs and their soldiers.

Americans marked Veterans Day with parades, speeches and military discounts, while in Europe the holiday known as Armistice Day held special meaning in the centennial year of the start of World War I.

While New York's Veterans Day Parade is the nation's oldest, the holiday also was celebrated around the country and overseas.

Boston's Veterans Day parade was to include a group representing LGBT military veterans for the first time. A recently formed group called OutVets said it expected between 10 to 30 people to march Tuesday in matching polo shirts and baseball caps.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie was scheduled to attend an event at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown, a state-operated cemetery where more than 56,000 veterans and their family members are buried. Faculty and students in Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, were to read the names of troops killed during deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Eminem and Metallica were among the headliners for a free concert on the National Mall to raise awareness for issues affecting veterans, In Washington, D.C.

Tuesday's first-of-its-kind Concert for Valor is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans to the Mall. The Veterans Day event was spearheaded by Starbucks president Howard Schultz.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)