LEWISTON – Wearing his tan battle dress uniform and boots, 34-year-old Brian Landry leaned against the armory wall and watched Tuesday as a stream of aging veterans marched.

“I know someday it will be me out there with the retired cap on,” said Landry, a captain in the Army Reserve who earned a Bronze Star in Iraq. “Because these men served, I can serve.”

If only more people came, he lamented.

Several hundred people watched as local veterans’ groups led a morning-long celebration of Veterans Day at the Lewiston Armory. But there were lots of empty seats, especially in the balcony.

“I see two other people from my unit,” Landry said. “I feel like it’s my obligation to be here.”

The program aimed to be entertaining and thoughtful. Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert and Auburn Mayor John Jenkins spoke. Guitarist Denny Breau performed, as did the Edward Little High School marching band, the Lewiston High School band and choir and the Just Us Singers.

Gilbert, a Vietnam veteran, spoke about a high school friend, Stan, who also fought in the war. Gilbert and Stan had tried and failed to reconnect just weeks before Stan’s death.

Gilbert said he still mourns.

Jenkins quoted the Bible, a verse from the book of James that reads: “Faith without works is dead.”

Jenkins explained the verse in relation to the ceremony: Veterans’ service enlivens their faith and contributes to the community.

“Let us lift our voices for our veterans,” Jenkins said.

Interrupting the service and adding to it, Willie Danforth, the national commander of the Franco-American War Veterans, rang a hand bell at 11:11 a.m.

At that time – exactly 90 years earlier – the guns of World War I were silenced. Nov. 11 was first known as Armistice Day. In the 1950s, it was renamed Veterans Day to celebrate the veterans of all wars.

Like Landry, Danforth said he too wished more young men had joined the ranks of the veterans’ groups.

“That’s our future coming to us,” he said

Groups like his – which has chapters in several New England states – have seen huge losses as the veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam die.

In some ways, people need to adjust to seeing a young man as a veteran, Capt. Landry said.

His car has a veterans’ license plate, which sometimes draws surprise from people around the city.

“People have asked me, ‘Is that your father’s car?'” he said.

Among soldiers of any age, the differences are less important than the similarities, Landry said. He has little trouble talking with his older counterparts.

“I can relate to them,” he said. “A bombshell is a bombshell.”