Veteran author to be guest speaker at Marion Memorial Day events

MARION  — The 2022 Memorial Day remembrances and procession will take place starting on Monday, May 30, starting at 9 a.m. in front of the Music Hall at 164 Front St, Marion. 

In the event of rain, the event will be relocated to the multipurpose room of Sippican Elementary School. 

The 2022 procession and remembrances will follow the same route as in past years, stepping off from the Music Hall northbound on Front Street, then marching 0.6 miles up Front Street to the Veterans’ Memorial at Old Landing.  

Upon arrival at the Veterans’ Memorial the town will pay tribute to our military’s “honored dead” who “gave the last full measure of devotion.”

The procession and remembrances will feature the Sippican School marching band led by director Hannah Moore as well as The Portuguese American band. 

The ceremony will conclude with members of the Select Board laying a wreath at the Veterans’ Memorial. The master of ceremonies for the event will be Major Andrew Bonney of the U.S. Air Force. 

The featured speaker is Jack McLean, author of “Loon: A Marine Story,’’ a memoir about his service in the United States Marine Corps from 1966 to 1968. He served as an infantry corporal in Vietnam in 1967 to 1968. 

In the fall of 1968, he became the first Vietnam War combat veteran to enroll at Harvard University. His 30-year marketing career began with the New York Mets. After subsequent stops in Boston, Portland, Charlotte, and Washington, D.C., he became the founding managing partner of the Greater Washington Initiative. He has recently completed his second book, “Three Survivors: A Veteran Story.’’

Residents are encouraged to attend the remembrances as well as stand along the parade route on Front Street between Cottage Street and Ryder Lane.