Bellingham names keynote speaker for Veterans Day

Former Army Ranger, BHS grad to do the honors at ceremony

BELLINGHAM — A former Army Ranger and 1986 graduate of Bellingham High School will be the keynote speaker at Bellingham’s fifth annual Veterans Day Ceremony, to be held Saturday, Nov. 11.

Coordinated by Jim Hastings, chairman of the Bellingham Memorial & Veterans Day Committee, the ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at the Bellingham Public Library, 100 Blackstone St.

The ceremony will open with a presentation of the colors by the Blackstone Valley Young Marines, and conclude with a wreathlaying and the playing of taps at the library flagpole.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Army veteran Sam Cowell, a Bellingham High School graduate and town resident.

Cowell served in the Army as a Russian linguist. While in Korea he was selected as Solider of the Year for the 8th Army. He is a

teacher in the Medfield school system and coaches youth sports in Bellingham.

Special guest speaker is Sgt. Kenneth Morell, a Bellingham native who graduated from Bellingham High School in 1986. He joined the Army after high school and served from 1986 to 1990 in the 75th Airborne Ranger Battalion.

Morell is a combat veteran of the Panama “Operation Just Cause” where he parachuted at night from 500 feet. He also completed the Army Best Ranger Competition, as seen on television each year.

Morell served in the National Guard from 1990 to 1999. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth with a Bachelors degree in marketing, he and his family live in Easton where is the co-owner of Rapid Results Realty and owner of Home Buyers 4 You, a building and renovation firm.

First known as Armistice Day, Veterans Day was originally a holiday to honor the end of World War I. In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean Conflict, Congress, at the urging of veterans service organizations, amended the 1938 Armistice Day legislation to change the word Armistice to Veterans.

On June 1, 1954, the legislation was passed, and each year since, November 11 is the day to honor American veterans of all wars.