As parades go, this one was special. USO Hawai'i's "Salute to Our Troops" seemed to mean something to everyone present — whether they were among the thousands lining Kalakaua Avenue or the estimated 5,000 participants representing every branch of the military.

The whole thing was augmented by brass bands, bagpipe players, fife-and-drum corps and military flyovers. There were flags and posters of gratitude. The applause was nonstop.

There were soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines, Coast Guard personnel, Hawai'i National Guard members and Reserve troops of every rank and stripe.

There were the old, the young and the in-between. There were the veterans, the active-duty warriors and the everyday civilians.

Watching several hundred leathernecks pass by in formation was Dino Salvatore, 47, a homeless street performer in Waikiki who hails from Charleston, S.C. Dressed in camouflage, Salvatore clutched a beat-up guitar with a Marine Corps decal pasted on it.

"I'm a former Marine. I turned down the parade. Because I get shelled-shocked once in a while. But I'm motivated by it," he said.

Salvatore ducked as several CH-47 Chinook helicopters suddenly and loudly flew over the parade route, and then he drifted away and faded into the crowd.

There was Seretta Patterson, also 47, of New York, who stood atop a 3-foot concrete wall near Kalakaua and Saratoga and shouted wildly as each unit passed by.

"U.S.A.!, U.S.A.!," she yelled.

"I'm with these soldiers all the way," Patterson said later. "Wherever they have to go, whatever they have to do, they always come through."

Not far away, veteran Margaret Hatchie, 73, was expressing similar sentiments. "The last parade I was in like this was the Armed Forces Day parade in Waikiki in 1954," said Hatchie, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor with the WAVES during the Korean War.

By the time the parade was winding down, Hatchie had been moved to tears. "I have never seen anything like this," she said. "To believe that so many Americans from all walks of life — all kinds of people on both sides of the street — had come out to cheer and shout for us, it was very moving experience."

She was among several groups of veterans of past conflicts who rode the parade route in buses. Ronald Oba was among those inside the World War II bus.

"It's an honor to be welcoming back and greeting our soldiers who just came back from battle in Iraq," said Oba, president of the 442nd Veterans Club, representing the famed and highly decorated "Go for Broke" unit.

"They were in harm's way just like we were in Europe."

Seated behind Oba was Ray Nosaka, 90, who fought in Europe with the Army's legendary 100th Battalion before the 442nd troops arrived. He recalled the experience of young Japanese-American soldiers right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

"Most of us were draftees and we were so mistrusted, they made us go through training three times," said Nosaka. "They didn't know what else to do with us. I don't regret it, though. By the time we got into battle, we were very experienced."

Garey Lester, 54, former secretary of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Hawai'i chapter, was among a half-dozen Vietnam-era GIs riding in the back of an olive-drab military utility vehicle.

Lester reflected on how Vietnam veterans didn't receive an immediate welcome home at the end of their tours of duty.

"This is a welcome home for us," said Lester. "And it's an honor for all the rest of our brothers out here. Days like this make a real big difference."

The day made a big difference to Staff Sgt. Ryan Taniguchi, 28, a Moloka'i native who served with the Army National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq and who was on patrol in Baghdad one year ago yesterday.

"I was marching that day in a different parade," he said. "It was hot as hell. My daughter, Rylynn, was born on May 19. And so every day in early May, it was critical to make it back, to check the messages and e-mails to see if my wife, Cassi, had given birth."

Taniguchi admitted that at the start of the parade he thought it would simply be another military march — the sort of thing soldiers do all the time.

"But this was different. You actually saw local people in Waikiki. And there were kids running up to us. It was the kind of stuff you see in the movies — like the guys winning some championship. It was a good thing."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.