EX-Royal Marines Colonel Al Carns became the first serving defence minister to march with veterans at the Cenotaph.
Carns, 42, served five tours in Afghanistan and won a Military Medal.
He wore his green beret to join Royal Marines Association members and said: “To all those that never made it home, we carry your memory and your sacrifice with us today and every day.”
The new UK Afghanistan Veterans’ Community marched for the first time.
Christian Lamb, 104, a woman who played a key role plotting the D-Day landings in Churchill’s war rooms, was the oldest veteran there.
Marching for the first time, Christian Lamb is one of the last surviving members of the Women’s Royal Naval Service, known as the Wrens, to have served throughout World War Two.
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She was given a top-secret role planning the D-Day landings, drawing detailed maps that guided landing craft to the beaches of Normandy.
Christian, of Battersea, south London said: “It is a great honour to take part in the Royal British Legion’s veteran march for the first time to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice.
“I thought of the war graves I visited in Normandy last June and of those that didn’t come back.”
RAF corporal Joe Randall, 101, was oldest man on parade. He served in Normandy in 1944 building airfields as the front line moved forward.
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