Soldiers served a Thanksgiving feast in Cherry Hill
Courier-Post – CHERRY HILL — Any given day, America’s Best Value Inn is a piece of highway architecture easily missed if you blink.
Not on Thanksgiving.
A crowd of about 1,000 area residents blanketed one side of the hotel’s parking lot off Route 70 Thursday morning to greet four busloads of soldiers from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
The baby-faced troops — some dangling cellphones out of windows as their buses approached the hotel entrance — had no idea they were headed to a surprise Thanksgiving dinner at the inn’s Palace of Asia Ballroom.
It was the 9th annual Feed the Troops Thanksgiving Day celebration, sponsored by Jewish War Veterans Post 126 and the Spevak family of Cherry Hill. Because many of the nearly 200 dinner guests are about to deploy to Afghanistan, they were unable to go home for Thanksgiving.
Among those in South Jersey who left a turkey in the oven to greet the soldiers were cousins Gail Connelly of National Park and Catherine Wilson of Mantua.
“It’s become kind of like a cousin thing we do together,” said Wilson, 58. “It’s a beautiful way to start the day.”
“We just want to let them know they’re not forgotten,” added Connelly, 52.
Just before the buses approached with an escort of area motorcycle clubs, Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful” wafted over a crowd of people holding flags, homemade signs or sleeping babies.
An onlooker could be heard giving his teen companion a lesson in history — and patience.
“Stop complaining,” the man said.
As the buses slid one at a time in front of the hotel entrance, veterans shouted to the crowd to “make a hole, make a hole.” The Joint Base soldiers debarked and saluted Col. Jeffrey Doll, commander of Army Support at the base, and a visibly impressed Stephen M. Sweeney, state Senate president.
For both soldiers and greeters, the event was fraught with emotion. This year’s dinner was named for Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy Kane, a Cherry Hill native killed in Afghanistan in 2010. His mother, Melinda, addressed the troops inside the ballroom.
“I want to thank all of you for allowing me to hug you,” gushed Kane, a Gold Star Mother and Cherry Hill councilwoman. “You might have thought it was for you, but it was for me.
“This may not be a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but this is your home today.”
Doll then introduced “an American hero,” Cherry Hill’s Arthur Seltzer. The commander of Post 126 and a veteran of World War II was finally awarded the Bronze Star he neglected to retrieve decades ago because “I was in too much of a hurry to get home.”
For decades, Seltzer rarely talked about his service at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He was a tech sergeant in the Army Signal Corps who relayed messages during the Bulge from Gen. George S. Patton to supreme allied commanders.
Inducted at 19, Seltzer survived the Omaha Beach landing at Normandy, and at 20, was among American soldiers who liberated the Dachau concentration camp. Citing the “68 years, five months and 16 days since Seltzer landed at Normandy,” Doll bestowed the Bronze Star and two other awards on an 88-year-old brimming with emotion.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Seltzer told the crowd, “which is very unusual for me.”
Not lost on Seltzer and dozens of other veterans present was the sacrifice about to be made by the Joint Base soldiers.
“It’s very nostalgic for me,” said John Covely, 90, of Mount Ephraim. He joined the Army Air Corps just after graduation from Audubon High School and headed to Europe.
“I can relate easily to these soldiers.”
So could Larry Altersitz, quartermaster of Cherry Hill’s Post 126 and a Vietnam veteran whose son has completed three tours in Iraq. The 66-year-old collects the donations that pay for the annual Thanksgiving dinner.
“It’s always very emotional,” the West Deptford resident said. “Today, we’re their family. And let’s face it, if it’s not McDonald’s or Subway for dinner, they’re ahead of the game.”
But with America’s involvement in Afghanistan winding down, Altersitz predicted there may not be as many guests at the troop dinner next year. Air Force Capt. Alex Wilson, for one, is about to deploy for his second tour in Afghanistan.
“It’s what we’re supposed to do,” the 29-year-old Nevada native said as he prepared to eat. “But none of us expected any of this.”
Outside the unassuming hotel, a guest talked on his cellphone, oblivious to the moving ceremony within.
But for Joint Base soldiers, Best Value Inn had the deal of the day.