USA TODAY US Edition

US team learns new meaning of greatness

- Nancy Armour

OMAHA BEACH, France – Every time they put on their uniforms or a piece of team apparel, the U.S. women are reminded they are the best in the country at what they do.

Close to where they will play their next World Cup match, however, is a reminder of the best this country has ever had.

While the U.S. players spent Tuesday preparing for their final group-stage game, many of their families toured Omaha Beach and the American cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer with Steve Melnikoff, a 99-year-old veteran. Melnikoff had met about a dozen of the players in January, when they were here for an exhibition game against France, and plans to go to Thursday night’s game against Sweden.

“I get emotional once in a while,” said Melnikoff, who was wounded twice in the 11-plus months he spent in Europe — the first time 75 years ago Monday. “I come back because I have to. You can’t forget what these guys did.”

Melnikoff served in the 175th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division and was 24 when he landed in Normandy. He came ashore June 7, the day after D-Day, his unit’s job to try to extend the gains the Allied forces had made.

But it was slow, and brutal, going. The Germans were using MG 42s, machine guns that could shoot 1,500 rounds a minute — or 25 a second — and more than 4,400 Allied soldiers were killed on D-Day alone. About another 5,000 were injured.

Melnikoff and his fellow infantryme­n were well aware of the casualties, climbing over bodies as bullets flew past them on their way to the beach.

“The first day was a horrendous day,” Melnikoff said, pointing out where the Germans had their machine guns trained on the Allied troops.

“You have to make sure our leaders are doing the right thing, and you’re the ones who have to do it. You’ll remember it the longest. That’s my mission now.”

Steve Melnikoff 99-year-old WWII veteran

“There was no chance for them,” Melnikoff said, referring to the first soldiers to come ashore. “When they came on the beach, they were decimated.”

But the roads leading away from the beaches were critical, so Melnikoff and the other troops kept coming.

“Those are your buddies. You can’t just say, ‘I’m not going,’ ” Melnikoff said. “You protect each other. That’s why everybody goes.”

Ten days later, the Allies were making their first attempt to take the town of Saint-Lo, about 23 miles from Omaha Beach. Melnikoff was shot in the neck. He was hospitaliz­ed but was back on the front lines two months later.

In September, during the battle for the town of Brest, some artillery landed a few feet from Melnikoff and shrapnel lodged in his back and shoulder. The

shrapnel in his shoulder remains, with doctors saying it would have caused more harm to remove it.

After 335 days of combat, Melnikoff returned home. He went to college on the G.I. bill, earning a degree in mechanical engineerin­g, and spent 35 years working for Bethlehem Steel. He and his wife had two sons and a daughter.

But he rarely talked about the war. His daughter, Amy Carrick, said she didn’t even know he’d earned one Bronze Star, let alone three of them, until he made an offhand comment about it when she was an adult.

“War is hell,” Melnikoff said simply. “It’s dangerous. It’s stinky. It’s messy. It’s death. You can only absorb so much of that.”

Finally, on the 60th anniversar­y of DDay, Melnikoff returned to Normandy. He has come back for every anniversar­y celebratio­n since and also makes appearance­s with The Greatest Generation­s Foundation.

It was during one of those trips that he and some other veterans met the U.S. players.

“It was the most humbling thing I think I’ve ever been a part of and heard. They’ve literally saved the world,” Carli Lloyd told U.S. Soccer afterward. “To hear their stories, what they went through and how they’re now sharing those stories after so many years, I don’t think any of us really get the real feel of what they went through.

“But it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

Sam Mewis, Crystal Dunn and Megan Rapinoe were among the players who met Melnikoff in January, and their families were part of Tuesday’s group, as well.

Rapinoe’s nephew, Austin, and his friend, Andrew Laraway, who are at the World Cup to celebrate their recent graduation from high school in Redding, California, accompanie­d Melnikoff as he laid a soccer ball-shaped arrangemen­t of red, white and blue flowers at a memorial at the U.S. cemetery.

“You have to make sure our leaders are doing the right thing, and you’re the ones who have to do it. You’ll remember it the longest,” Melnikoff said. “That’s my mission now.” Greatness is a word that’s often thrown around too easily, especially when it comes to sports. Melnikoff has given it new meaning for the U.S. women.

 ?? MICHAEL CHOW/THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC ?? Steve Melnikoff salutes during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on Tuesday.
MICHAEL CHOW/THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Steve Melnikoff salutes during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on Tuesday.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States