by: Roger Riley
Posted: May 20, 2020 / 04:00 PM CDT Updated: May 20, 2020 / 04:53 PM CDT
VAN METER, Iowa- This year, during the year of COVID-19, the Memorial Day ceremony will go on at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery here. But this year it will be limited to just a handful of people. But the whole state, and world is invited to watch on Facebook Live.
“We’re actually keeping it very very limited,” said Karl Lettow, the Public Affairs Director for the Iowa Veteran’s Affairs Department. “We will have a chaplain, two speakers, one of them being our Director, Steve Lukan,and we will be able to do taps.”
Across Iowa many things are cancelled or postponed, including Memorial Day services. But Veterans Affairs is responsible for running the Iowa Veterans Cemetery, they wanted to do something on Memorial Day.
“It’s one of those things that you’ve got to make the best with the situation you got, and as always Memorial Day is a huge deal,” said Lettow. “In Iowa we have a much greater reverence for this than you’re going to find throughout most the country, so this is a huge event for us, we do have to keep everybody safe in mind and that’s the biggest priority.”
People are still welcome to visit the Iowa Veterans Cemetery on Memorial Day.
“The cemetery itself will be open, just we want visitors keep in mind stay clear of the ceremony area,” said Lettow. “We want to prevent gatherings, we want them to respect the social distancing protocols that we’ve all been kind of adhering to lately.”
If you would like to find the Facebook page where the ceremony will be broadcast on 8 am Memorial Day, click here. The ceremony will be archived there also for later viewing.
** STORY FROM WHO TV 13 NEWS **
