Thousands of service members are set to march up Fifth Avenue in the 2026 New York City Veterans Day Parade on November 11, with the procession stepping off at 12:30 p.m. from 26th Street and heading north to 50th Street. The parade will be broadcast on Channel 7 and wherever ABC 7 New York is streamed.
Sunita “Suni” Williams, a retired Navy captain who flew aboard several space missions, will serve as grand marshal. Mark Otto said the parade is proud to welcome her on the 250th birthday of the United States of America, calling her service a fit for the values honored each Veterans Day. Vicki Bello will serve as honorary marshal, bringing a different kind of military history to the day. She enlisted in the United States Navy in 1985, served on active duty as a Radioman at commands including Adak, Alaska, and Ford Island, Hawaii, and then spent two more years in the Naval Reserve at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx.
The scale is what gives the parade its pull. More than 30,000 participants march down Fifth Avenue in New York City every year, and the event is described as America’s largest Veterans Day parade. That label matters because it is tied not just to the number of marchers but to the breadth of what fills the route: veterans, military members, service organizations, youth cadets, marching bands, floats, motorcycles and vintage vehicles.
There is still one measure the public never gets from the headline claim alone: how that comparison is being counted. The parade is promoted as the biggest Veterans Day event in the United States, yet the public tally offered is participation, not attendance, and no figure is given for how many people will line the route or watch at home this year.
Before the march begins, the annual Wreath-Laying Ceremony will take place at 10:55 a.m. in Madison Square Park, with wreaths presented by veteran representatives, public officials, foreign allies and senior military leaders. Produced each year by the United War Veterans Council, the parade starts at 12:30 p.m. and then moves through Fifth Avenue in a way that turns one morning into the city’s main Veterans Day gathering.
