As a kid, David Meltzer, OD, FAAO, played street hockey and was a big fan of the Philadelphia Flyers. He recalls watching the Flyers in the 1980s, when the team made the Stanley Cup finals three times during that decade.
 
Now, he gets to share the ice with some of his boyhood idols like Brad Marsh and Bob “The Hound” Kelly.
 
Dr. Meltzer — assistant professor and clinical instructor at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University — is a member of the Philadelphia Flyers Warriors. It’s a hockey organization for injured and disabled U.S. military veterans who have a Veterans Administration disability rating of 10 percent or more.
 
“I saw an article on the Flyers website in the summer of 2019, and being a big hockey fan and a big Flyers fan, I said to myself ‘I need to join that team,’” said Dr. David Meltzer.
 
The Warriors have three different-level teams and have participated in the Warrior Classic tournament for the past three years. In 2021, each of the three teams won their individual divisions in that tournament. The team doesn’t have a set schedule, but practices every Sunday at the Flyers Skate Zone in Pennsauken, N.J.
 
Marsh, the former Flyers defenseman and now president of the Flyers Alumni Association, serves as the Warriors coach.
Kelly, an aggressive left-winger and one of the team’s “enforcers,” was a member of the Broad Street Bullies, the Flyers dynasty that won consecutive Stanley Cup Championships in 1974 and 1975. He is the Warriors’ assistant coach. 
 
“Getting coached by Brad Marsh is amazing,” said Dr. Meltzer. “And, I’ve been on the ice with John LeClair, one of my boyhood idols. I still have his jersey.”

Dr. David Meltzer, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, served in Iraq as part of the First Armored Division embedded with the 47th Forward Support Battalion stationed at the Baghdad Airport during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was one of 10 U.S. optometrists at the time, responsible for treating U.S. soldiers, injured Iraqi civilians and prisoners of war captured by the Americans. He retired from the military in March 2019 and joined the PCO/Salus faculty soon thereafter.
 
The biggest things for Dr. Meltzer about being a member of the Warriors team is being part of the Flyers organization and being able to spend time with his fellow military veterans.
 
“When I left the military, I left my family, my brothers and sisters,” said Dr. Meltzer. “But now I can still hang out with them once a week, and even more when we have events.”
 
“Our team is a charity itself and we do a lot of charitable events,” said Dr. David Meltzer. “The Flyers organization is certainly a family organization. They treat everybody the same, which is fantastic.”

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