Belle-Scott Committee will again honor 3 veterans at 70th annual enlisted dinner

Honoring local veterans has become the centerpiece — and highlight — of the annual Belle-Scott Enlisted Dinner.

This year will be no different as three veterans will be recognized at the 70th annual event, scheduled Thursday at The Shrine Banquet Center in Belleville. Terry Foerste, who handles finding the honorees, said this year’s group is again very deserving.

“These three guys had very successful careers after they got out,” he said. “They went in, served their time, did their duty and served their country.”

Below is a brief synopsis of this year’s honorees, as provided by Foerste:

Robert Elder (88, Korean War)

Born in January 1932, Elder enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1952 after serving 18 months in The National Guard. He was assigned to a U.S. Navy Construction Battalion and became a Navy Seabee. The Navy needed an air station during the Korean War and the site chosen was Cubi Point in the Philippines. Elder’s Amphibious Beach Group was sent to Japan and then to Cubi Point where they worked on the Cubi Point Project.

During this time Elder worked on the air strip, became a ship superintendent and operated numerous pieces of heavy equipment, qualified as an Assault Boat Coxswain and attended numerous training classes. Decorations include the National Defense Ribbon, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Medal And Good Conduct Medal. Elder left the service as a construction mechanic, 2nd Class.

“Seabee comes from the letters from construction battalions or CB — so they adopted the CB. Seabees were started during World War II to replace the civilian contractors. I’ve never had anybody in the veterans I’ve interviewed be a Seabee, so I thought that would be of interest to folks,” Foerste said.

Wes Scheller (91, Korean War)

Born in October 1929, Scheller enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was trained as a radio operator which included training in Morse Code and copying messages from military radio networks. Scheller was assigned to 1st Radio Squadron, 5th Communications Group, 5th Air Force, Seoul, Korea.

After 11 months, he returned to the United States and was assigned to the 798th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron near Scott Air Force Base. Scheller’s decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, Un Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal.

“He had to monitor approximately seven military networks and take encrypted messages and type them out. He didn’t know where they were from or what they contained, but he had to be super accurate because once they were sent, they were sent,” Foerste said.

Don Jerome (84, Vietnam War)

Born in June 1935, Jerome applied for medical school and chose St. Louis University for medical school and graduated as a general physician n 1961. He went on to become an ear, nose and throat specialist, and was called up for active duty and became an Army surgeon in Japan treating wounded from Vietnam.

He was assigned to the 106th General Hospital, which was a 1,200 bed hospital in a converted barracks. The hospital had a staff of 147 physicians and treated wounded from all services as well as providing medical services to local military members and dependents. He was released from active duty after two years and started a successful private practice.

“They not only took care of the wounded from Vietnam from all the different services but also provided medical expertise for the attendants and servicemen stationed at the hospital,” Foerste said.

From Dintelmann to Foerste for finding veterans

Foerste inherited the position of securing the honorees from Bob Dintlemann. And he loves spending time with them.

“My recommendation to people is if you have a vet in the family or somebody who knows a vet or a neighbor who’s a veteran, you should sit down to talk to them because you might be surprised what they tell you,” Foerste said. “Every one of them has a story to tell. They’re really like living history.”

How the process works is Foerste either will meet the veteran, or, more commonly, someone will approach him — whether via the phone or in person — and say they know a veteran he might be interested in interviewing.

“I always make the offer to interview them and in most of the cases they agreed to an interview,” Foerste said. “I interview them with their family or whoever. I’ve interviewed them at dining room tables, kitchen tables, in the hospital, in restaurants ... even traveled and interviewed them as far away as Branson, Missouri.”

Foerste said he tweaked his approach to finding veterans this year.

“I looked at veterans who were everyday guys, who went into the service, who did their service, who served their country, got out and continued their lives,” Foerste said. “If you look at the majority of the service members that’s exactly what many of them do and some choose to stay in the military.”

Through the years, Foerste said he’s interviewed World War II veterans, Korean War veterans, Vietnam veterans and prisoners of war. Foerste himself is a Vietnam veteran, having served 10 years and two tours of duty as a helicopter pilot.

“I consider it an honor that I’m able to tell the stories that these veterans have, especially on the 70th anniversary,” he said. “Each year is unique because the stories are never the same. They’re living history and sometimes I’ll come across things that have been forgotten ... the veterans do so much more for me than I can ever do for them.”

Geri Boyer, Belle-Scott Committee civilian chairperson, said Foerste does an excellent job finding candidates.

“He strikes up a personal relationship with the honorees. It’s really great to see the interplay between him and the veterans,” she said.

Boyer said recognizing the honorees is the evening’s highlight.

“I think that even for the 100-plus enlisted men and women that come to this event, it is the highlight to hear the stories of those being honored and to show them special tribute,” she said. “They served in our military when it was not always popular to serve in the military.”

Boyer recalled a story of a pilot who was shot down, had his plane put back together with duct tape and wire and then went back in the air before being shot down again.

“For most of us, we can’t fathom doing that,” she said. “To have that love for country ... to see the sacrifices and the bravery these honorees had during the time they served is just incredible.”

Tradition of honoring vets started 20 years ago

The history of honoring veterans dates back to the 50th anniversary dinner in 2000. Dintelmann proposed the idea and then long-time committee member Mike Leopold secured veterans from the VFW.

“I remember having a meeting with our group that runs it and we were talking about doing something special for the 50th,” Dintelmann said. “That’s when I brought up the idea of doing this, introducing veterans, citizens, soldiers who had served in any type of combat situations.”

Then, in 2001, Dintelmann started handling this task himself until handing the reigns over to Foerste a few years ago. Early on, Dintelmann secured honorees via word of mouth. He also found another resourceful method to do the trick.

“Sometimes, I would see people who had their Illinois license plate with their military awards on their license plate ... some with a Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star,” Dintelmann said. “If I saw it on a license plate I would try to seek out whoever that person was that owned that vehicle and just talk to them. I just ran into all sorts of men who had been involved with combat, and most were willing to talk it about.”

Dintlemann enjoyed handling the process

Dintelmann cherished hearing the veterans’ stories, which included accounts of people who were prisoners of war in Japan and one man who was in a concentration camp in Germany. Dintelmann said the earliest honorees were friends of his.

“Just to hear their stories about what happened when they were serving in the military was amazing,” he said. “My only disappointment was I could never find a woman involved in World War II, a nurse or involved in any situation. There were plenty of women who contributed in important ways during that time. I was a 10-year-old boy when the war ended ... I remember the end of the war pretty vividly in Belleville.”

Dintelmann himself served in the U.S. Army, two years as a signal corps. He also went through and completed paratrooper training and was active duty from 1957-59. He later spent five years in the Reserves.

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 1:20 PM.