On the eve of Veterans Day in 2019, Army veteran Keith LaMee and the other members of Colorado Springs’ American Legion Post 5 were gearing up for one of the biggest days of their year in this most-military of towns.

There would be a packed parade route along Tejon Street, a gathering at Memorial Park, and another at Pikes Peak National Cemetery, the new Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery in the city’s southeastern fringe.

“And we usually get a pretty large contingent at both,” said LaMee, whose 101-year-old post is the city’s oldest.

This year, the parade and other big public events have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The post still plans to celebrate the day, but on a much more intimate platform with a small gathering Wednesday in Memorial Park hosted by the Special Forces Association, and an even smaller group meeting for a toast at the final resting place of Floyd K. Lindstrom, World War II hero, medal of honor recipient and the post’s official namesake, at Evergreen Cemetery.

Since the shutdown and continuing limitations on gatherings began in March, it’s been a challenge to carry out the organization’s big-picture mission to support and celebrate service members, past and present, and remind everyone else why they should, too, LaMee said.

“It’s hit all the veterans service organizations quite hard, and now we’re trying to figure out how we can keep active in the community and inspire others to honor veterans,” LaMee said. “I know it’s not just us. I know it’s affected funerals …. I just saw an obituary for a man who’d served over 30 years in the Air Force, and they’re not doing any public service because of the COVID.”

About 1,700 veterans are interred at the city’ 2-year-old national cemetery, including a number whose official services had to be postponed because of the virus. Limited gatherings at chapels and grave sites are happening again, but for about three months in the spring, America’s heroes were laid to rest without fanfare.

“When the pandemic first started, we shut off committal services entirely,” said Skyler Holmes, director of the national cemetery.

In June, the OK came for services of up to 25 people at committal shelters and the cemetery started working through the backlog of services for people who had interred their loved ones but had not been permitted to have honors services.

“That was about the same time the DOD started to loosen up their regulations enough to send an honors team out, first a two-person team and now most of the branches have gone to a five-person honors team like normal,” Holmes said.

“If a family was denied a service due to COVID precautions, we tried to bring them in as a memorial only … so that they could give them the final closure,” he said. “The situation was rough for families, naturally, but most understood then and they’re more understanding now, even though they may not be happy that the committal service is still limited to 25 people.”

Costas Rombocos and his family have been hosting memorials and services for veterans at the Shrine of Remembrance for 50 years, and 2020 has been unlike any other.

“A lot of the things that we used to do, because of COVID we are not able to get the support that we need to do these things,” Rombocos said. “We were hoping that the COVID will go away, but it’s back now. This doesn’t stop us from honoring our veterans, all the time.”

Under regulations, the Shrine’s large chapel can hold up to 50 people, with room for a socially distanced 50 more in the overflow seating area. There’s also an outdoor veterans honor court, a “place of tribute to military veterans and their spouses.”

That’s where Linda Cellini will be Monday before she bids a final farewell to her father. Flying Tigers hero and Colorado’s oldest WWII veteran, Ollie Cellini, died Sept. 12 at age 107.

Linda knows not everyone who might want to pay their respects to her late father will fit inside the building. She said she’s hoping the public — anyone who reads his obituary — will defer to close friends and family, of whom Ollie had many.

To honor him, they need only look to the skies he loved so much. A flyover by planes from the 39th Flight Training Squadron at the San Antonio air base, where Ollie graduated from flying school, is scheduled for 11:15 a.m.

“If you’d like to pay your respects, come at the beginning for the outside military honors. You can be outside, or park and stay at your car and watch the flyover and think about dad,” Linda said. “That was the only thing he asked me for, very specifically. A flyover. And when your dad asks you for something, you’re going to try to do it.”