Riley Howell to Receive Congressional Award
From the Charlotte Observer story:
The Howells were informed in early January that Riley had been nominated — multiple times, in fact — for the award, given to just a small handful of individuals each year by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
A few weeks later, they learned he was selected as one of the six 2020 recipients. They were asked to keep the news in confidence, but were invited to the planned awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., where living Medal of Honor winners would present the civilian honorees (or their families) with the awards.
That ceremony originally was supposed to take place on Wednesday night, and would have marked Congressional Medal of Honor Day, which is a federal holiday.
However, early this month, well before the coronavirus pandemic had become a national emergency, organizers of the event nixed it due to concerns about the risk to the living Medal of Honor winners who would be presenting (all of whom are in their 70s or older).
So the new plan is for Riley Howell and the other honorees to be recognized at a ceremony exactly one year from now, on Congressional Medal of Honor Day in 2021.