All the tunes of glory rang up Fifth Avenue Tuesday as New York marked Veterans Day in a parade led by the city’s former police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, a former Marine officer and a combat veteran of Vietnam, and his wife, Veronica, a veteran of the Coast Guard.

Mr. Kelly was a fitting choice to serve as Grand Marshal of this year’s parade, which was dedicated to the Marines. He was among a retinue of current and former city officials, including Mayor de Blasio, who strode over to the parade along 28th street, shaking hands with police officers and weaving through two blocks of Harley Davidson motorcyclists, who were revving their machines before wheel onto Fifth Avenue for the parade up to 52nd Street.

If there is dwindling enthusiasm, as is sometimes reported, for veterans’ parades in America in the 21st century, it wasn’t evident this morning in New York. Thousands of veterans, some in uniform, others in costumes, some bearded veterans, others still fresh from battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, marched up Fifth Avenue in a spectacle that drew upwards of half a million spectators.

The parade began with a wreath laying at t 11 a.m. at the Eternal Light Monument at Madison Square, which fell silent. The time — — the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 — is the moment at which hostilities in Western Europe in World War I were ended with the Armistice of Compiègne.

One of the striking features of the parade was the assortment of organizations — “The Fire Family Transport Foundation,” the “Vietnam Dog Handler’s Associaton,” and the “Port Authority Armed Forces Society.” Dozens of floats made their way up Fifth Avenue, including one for the “Rakkansans,” the nickname given to the 187th Infantry by the amused Japanese after a translator used the Japanese word for “umbrella” in an attempt to describe how the parachutists descended from the sky. One Rakkansan who won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, Paul Bucha, was at the parade.

The Fire Department, Police Department, West Point Cadets, were among the institutions whose bands or honor guards joined the march. At one point, the National League’s Rookie of the Year, Jacob de Grom, strode past the Empire State Building. At the reviewing stand at 41st street, Medal of Honor winners, generals, and the Superintendent of West Point mixed with Gold Star Mothers — and a Gold Star Sister — in marking remarks as the spectacle passed.

The loudest applause we heard was for the enormous American flag, so large that it had to be carried horizontally by members of the military and seemed to cover half a block as it made its way up Fifth Avenue.