Sioux Center, Iowa — It’s no fun to have to cancel or postpone things due to COVID-19. But the postponing of some events has a bigger impact than others.
Every day we lose more and more veterans, especially the older ones, and time is running out. That’s why it’s a bigger impact when things involving them need to be postponed.
Midwest Honor Flight’s Board of Directors tells us that they have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2020 May and June scheduled flights out of caution for the Veterans, Guardians, and Crew.
Aaron Van Beek, Midwest Honor Flight’s President says, “This heartbreaking decision was not made lightly as many hours of planning have taken place to make these flights possible.”
This change comes after the National Honor Flight Network announced that they are requiring all Honor Flights to be suspended through April 30th. In addition to that, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) have both stated that adults over the age of 60 are particularly at risk of infection and should avoid all non-essential air travel. Van Beek says that the vast majority of our Veterans fall into this high-risk category.
This decision has an immediate impact on the May 30th mission, which is the Lyon County Riverboat Foundation, Mission 7. It will also affect the June 2nd mission. Van Beek says those that have been confirmed on each of these flights will not lose their spot and will be contacted soon with additional information.
The Lyon County Riverboat flight has been rescheduled for August 22nd, and the June 2nd mission will now be on September 5th.
