The Fort Dodge man organized the effort in 2009 and the first flights were conducted in 2010.

“What a great legacy he left doing those flights,” said Rhonda Chambers, the recently retired director of aviation at Fort Dodge Regional Airport. “It was always about doing his best to honor the veterans.”

Long before the first flight took off, Newsum started Old Glory on the River, displaying an American flag from a pier of the former Bennett Viaduct in the middle of the Des Moines River.

“Ron would never say no to any opportunity to volunteer,” said Jeff McCarville, one of Newsum’s relatives. “He was just a great guy.”

-Messenger file photo
Ron Newsum, founder of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight, places a flower next to a marker dedicated to his stepfather, Clement Hentges, a U.S. Navy veteran, in August 2021. Hentges was Newsum’s inspiration for starting the Honor Flight.

Members of the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight Committee remembered Newsum for his attention to detail, and his desire to make the Honor Flights a perfect experience for every veteran.

They also remembered his habit of saying “Do you follow me?” frequently during conversations.

The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight program is a product of Newsum’s vision. He had heard about the national Honor Flight program with chapters across the country taking World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see the war memorials. And he wanted to get his stepfather, the late Clem Hentges, to the nation’s capital. Hentges was a Navy veteran who had served on small PT boats in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during World War II.

Newsum got to work and brought some other area residents together to form a committee that would conduct the Honor Flights.

“I always remember the telephone call I got from Ron, telling me what he planned to do and asking me to be a member of the board,” said Mel Schroeder, of Fort Dodge. “I was very honored to do so.”

“Ron dedicated virtually most of his time to making each flight successful,” he added.

In 2010, there were three flights.

“I don’t know how we did it,’ Chambers said.

Each flight followed the same basic pattern. It departed from Fort Dodge Regional Airport very early in the morning and landed at Dulles International Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. There, the veterans boarded buses that took them on a tour of the various war memorials and monuments in the nation’s capital. Then the group flew back to Fort Dodge that night.

Newsum spent hours before every flight working on details like the seating chart for the plane trips.

“Ron made it so personal for each veteran,” Schroeder said. “He was so dedicated and so appreciative of each veteran’s service and wanted to honor that service.”

Chambers said he “was never one to take credit” for the success of the flights.

Newsum said often that his goal was to get enough veterans and enough money for one flight.

The effort succeeded beyond all of his hopes. Under his leadership, the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight conducted 27 trips that transported about 3,500 veterans to and from Washington.

Those veterans came from 228 communities in 61 Iowa counties.

The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight has never had a corporate sponsor, but a steady flow of donations and fundraisers has meant that no veteran has ever had to pay for their Honor Flight trip.

“We have not had to beg for one dime,” Newsum once told The Messenger.

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After the Honor Flight trip in May 2025, Newsum and his team retired. A new group is preparing to carry on the effort, with a flight planned for this spring.

The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight is not the first patriotic endeavor Newsum launched for his community.

An American flag flies at the top of a tall pole in the middle of the Des Moines River thanks to one of his ideas.

He called the project Old Glory on the River. The first flag was raised at that site on June 14, 2004, which was Flag Day.

In an interview with The Messenger, Newsum said he got the idea for the flagpole while he was part of a cleanup effort on the banks of the Des Moines River in advance of a dragon boat festival, which was held on the river instead of Badger Lake at that time.

Newsum said while working, he looked at a pier in the middle of the water which once supported the old Bennett Viaduct and thought “what a beautiful place for an American flag.”

He got permission from Mayor Will Patterson to put a flagpole on the bridge pier.

Crews from McGough Construction Co. drilled a seven-foot deep hole in the pier and placed a 77-foot tall flagpole in it.

Whenever the flag needs to be replaced, Fort Dodge firefighters go out in a boat and raise a new one.

Newsum, who served in the Iowa Air National Guard, received the Veteran of the Year Award from the Fort Dodge Veterans Council.

‘He had tremendous influence on the veterans with the Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight,” said Tom Dorsey, an Army veteran from Fort Dodge who leads the annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day observances. “It was just magnificent. It was just a huge contribution to the veterans community, not just in Fort Dodge but in many other counties as well.”

Newsum was retired from a long career with Farm Bureau Financial Services. That background prepared him for one of his earlier community service efforts, when he volunteered to help senior citizens figure out the various health insurance plans available to them.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Newsum will begin at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Fort Dodge.