Voorhees adds to Veterans Wall of Honor with induction ceremony
Last week marked the second annual induction ceremony for adding names to the Voorhees Veterans Wall of Honor — an event Mayor Michael Mignogna said he hopes will continue as a yearly tradition well into the future.
On the evening of Oct. 19, the Voorhees Town Center hosted a crowd filled with veterans and their families, township and county officials and members of public who gathered to honor those connected to Voorhees who served their country through branches of the United States armed forces.
The Wall of Honor, located in Town Hall on the second level of the Town Center, holds plaques with pictures and information about the military service of veterans from Voorhees Township or those who have an immediate family member in the town.
Upon its creation last year, the Wall of Honor was unveiled with an inaugural 234 Voorhees veterans.
Last week’s ceremony brought the total to 303, with another 69 names added to the list of honorees, including 27 members of the Army, 22 members of the Navy, seven members of the Air Force, five members of the Marine Corps, three members of the Coast Guard, and two Army Air Corp members, as well as three women.
“It’s fitting that we honor these veterans on a wall of honor, because they stood on the wall of freedom and protected our freedom for us and our children and our grandchildren and for that we and Voorhees Township will be eternally grateful,” Mignogna said.
Mignogna also praised the work of former township clerk Jeanette Schelberg, a military veteran herself, who he said was the impetus and driving force behind the wall and did much of the actual work in notifying veterans and gathering their information.
Through the process of collecting veterans’ information, Mignogna said many intriguing facts were learned not just by township officials, but by the veterans’ families themselves who found out stories they had never heard.
Mignogna shared just some of those stories for the ceremony’s crowd, such Thomas McCart of the USMC who received the Bronze Star for valor in the Korean War and went on to become the mayor of Voorhees, or township engineer Wendell Bibbs of the U.S. Army who made hundreds of jumps out of airplanes, or Gordon Lampitt of the U.S. Army, father-in-law to 6th Legislative District Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, who served in three wars from World War II to the Korean War to the Vietnam War.
However, Mignogna said most importantly that evening those gathered would be honoring the story of Robert Alton Williams, the only inductee this year to have been killed in action.
Born in North Carolina in 1943, Williams enlisted in the Navy upon graduating high school, and after a three-year tour, he was honorably discharged and moved to Voorhees.
In 1965, Williams enlisted in Army and volunteered for duty in Vietnam even though he was exempt from service because his brother was already serving in Vietnam.
On Oct. 27, 1967, Williams was ambushed by Vietcong and killed, for which he was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart.
“Staff Sgt. Robert Williams gave the ultimate sacrifice, so that we can enjoy our freedoms, and we’re honored to have his family here this evening in tribute to his memory,” Mignogna said.
That family included Williams’ sister and Voorhees resident April Hale, who was presented with a Camden County Military Service Medal for her brother, and received for herself a Camden County Special Veterans Recognition Award for distinguished service to veterans.
“Tonight we honor not only the veterans, we honor their stories, many of them similar stories, many of them unique stories — all heroic stories,” Mignogna said.
