WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Veterans scheduled to head to Washington on the April Never Forgotten Honor Flight have been rescheduled for September due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Never Forgotten Honor Flight Co-founder Jim Campbell says the decision came from the national level following an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors on Tuesday.
“All Honor flights will be postponed through April 30th,” said Campbell. “That includes the five Honor Flights in Wisconsin, and ours.”
Mission 39 for the NFHF had been scheduled for April 20th. Campbell says all impacted Veterans will be contacted directly, either by phone or in writing, with details about the re-scheduled September mission.
That flight will take place on September 7th. Campbell says the chapter already had that flight on their schedule but hadn’t yet booked the guest list.
The decision does not impact the May flight, currently scheduled for the 18th. Campbell says that decision will also be left up to the national Board of Directors.
He adds that the decision is in the best interest of the Veterans. “We had been talking about it. Regardless of what our personal opinions are about the media hype, the fact of the matter is the age demographic [of those] susceptible to the virus is those of our Veterans. Even though healthy people are not affected that much, we take Veteran’s that are not in good health.
“They are in hospice, they are suffering from illnesses caused by Agent Orange. Those are very, very high-risk,” he added.
Wednesday’s news means the NFHF will only have 3 missions in 2020. Those are May 18th, September 7th, and October 12th. The May and September flights are full, but a passenger list for the October flight has not been finalized.
Any Honor Flight chapter that does go through with their scheduled flights in April will be terminated.
