By Carol Britton Meyer

Hull’s traditional Veterans Day remembrance will be held on Friday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. at the war memorial at Monument Square, across from Cumberland Farms.

This year's ceremony will take place on the north (Vietnam Wall) side of the memorial facing the unnamed street that will be dedicated to the late Richard I. “Butch” Neal, a Hull native and retired four-star Marine Corps general.

This section of the road will be named “General Neal Way” at the request of the War Memorial Commission and Chair Paul Dunphy, who is organizing this portion of the ceremony, during which the street signs will be unveiled. Former Select Board member John Reilly will be the keynote speaker for the dedication.

Moving the ceremony to the north side of the memorial “will help facilitate the dedication ceremony being held immediately after the Veterans Day ceremony,” according to Director of Veterans Services Paul Sordillo, who shared the plans with the select board this week.

Father William Sexton of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish-St. Ann’s Church will give the invocation as well as the benediction, and select board Chair Jennifer Constable will also make remarks near the beginning of the ceremony. Rev. Dr. Peter Preble of St. Nicholas United Methodist Church is the guest speaker.

Police and fire department and Coast Guard honor guards will participate, with taps played by Robert Corcoran. The Hull Police Department will do a gun salute.

The governor’s proclamation will be read by Hull student Emily Irby, who will also read the poem, “In Flanders Field.”

The talented Hull High School band will play the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful” under the direction of Ian Barkon, and the VFW will honor Voice of Democracy/Voice of America essay winners from the middle and high schools if the essays are ready in time.

Sordillo will conclude the ceremony.

State Rep. Joan Meschino, Sen. Patrick O’Connor, and US Rep. Stephen Lynch also have been invited to attend.