Marblehead readies for Memorial Day ceremonies

MARBLEHEAD – Marblehead’s Memorial Park speakers this Memorial Day will be Army Col. Don Nowland (ret) and Navy Storekeeper First Class Stephen Mitchell, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.Col. Nowland retired in 1989 after a 231/2-year career. He commanded combat arms units, including an artillery battery in Vietnam and an air defense brigade in Germany.Among technical assignments, he led the Army’s evaluation of the software developed for missile defense programs in the late 1960s and was a research physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the early 1970s.He served on the Army Headquarters Staff and as Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Army in the mid 1970s.Born May 21, 1943 in Detroit, Mich., he received a bachelor’s degree in engineering from West Point in 1965 and a Master’s degree in physics from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1970. He graduated from the Army General Staff College in 1975, the U.S. Army War College in 1985 and from the Executive Management Program at the University of Southern California in 1986.He is married to Davita Nowland, has three grown children and resides in Marblehead. He now works for Raytheon Co. as the director of the Capture Execellence Team.Memorial Day Weekend activities will begin with Veteran’s Grave Flagging on Saturday. Volunteers may join members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Submarine Veterans in honoring Marblehead’s veterans at 11 a.m., starting at the bell tower area at Waterside Cemetery.Anyone needing a flag for an overlooked veteran’s grave may call the Veterans’ Agent’s office at 781-631-0990.Sunday at 1 p.m. there will be a public veterans’ service at the Star of the Sea Cemetery.Monday morning begins with the 8 a.m. Clark Landing service and the 9 a.m. Memorial Day parade and muster, beginning at the Old Town House in downtown Marblehead. The honorary grand marshal of this year’s parade is Robert Glabicky, an Army veteran of the Korean War.