LONDON, Nov 9, (AP): Michael Woods has visited his wife, Mary, every day since she moved into a nursing home two years ago. But on Sunday, the 100-year-old Royal Air Force veteran will skip the daily get-together so he can fulfill another duty - honoring the men he served with during World War II. For the first time since he left the RAF in 1947, Woods will take part in Britain’s national Remembrance Day service, joining thousands of veterans as they march past the Cenotaph war memorial in central London to honor those who died during the world wars and all the conflicts that followed.

"It’s a great privilege for me to do this,” said Woods, a mechanic who kept Lancaster bombers flying during the war. "And I suppose I’ll never do it again." The annual ceremony is a solemn event marked every year when the king and envoys from the Commonwealth nations that fought alongside Britain in the two world wars lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

It culminates when up to 10,000 veterans, many with medals gleaming on their chests and regimental berets on their heads, parade past the memorial. Until now, Woods has watched on television from his home in Dunstable, 30 miles (50 kilometers) away. Mary always watched with him. Woods had a lot on his mind before. For many years, he was busy with his family: two daughters, a son, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. And, more recently, he was looking after Mary, his wife of 68 years. But there was something else holding him back as well.

He didn’t feel he deserved the honor, as he was "just" a mechanic working on the 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Merlin engines that powered the Lancaster bombers. He changed his mind after he connected with other ex-service members through Blind Veterans UK, the charity that has helped him deal with macular degeneration and glaucoma.

He felt it was time to remember the men who didn’t come home after they roared into the sky aboard planes he had certified as airworthy. Each Lancaster carried a crew of seven, most in their early 20s, so the losses - so many at once - were hard to bear. "It’s very, very upsetting when a Lancaster takes off and it doesn’t return," Woods told The Associated Press. "I couldn’t forget it if I wanted to," he added. "It’s just imprinted on your mind, you know." The RAF’s Bomber Command had the highest attrition rate of any Allied unit during World War II, with 44% of aircrew members killed in action, according to the International Bomber Command Centre. Some 55,573 of the 125,000 who served on the aircrews died during the war.