Fort Huachuca, Arizona -- Svetlana Melton's birthday was celebrated with friends and family at Barnes Field House and included a surprise presentation of her accumulated swimming awards and medals and a coin from the garrison commander.
Melton is a world-class 200-meter butterfly swimmer who, with her husband, Eric Melton, European Theater Integration Analyst, Network Enterprise Technology Command Business Office, has lived in Arizona for six years.
Les Woods, chief of Sports, Fitness and Aquatics at Barnes Field House, welcomed Svetlana and her husband, Eric, to the celebration and explained a little bit of Svetlana's experience as a swimmer and athlete.
Svetlana was born in 1962 in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, situated in the northeast with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Svetlana was about 10 years old when she went across the city and told the swimming coach that she wanted to swim.
Eric said her coach "was just amazed at this little girl that decided she wanted to be a swimmer. Pretty soon she was the city champion. Then the Ukrainian champion, then USSR champion, which was 16 countries [at the time]. She competed in a lot of European events. She was in the [United States]. She was part of the Soviet elite, able to travel and see the world."
Svetlana was "rated 10th in the world at one point in the 200-meter butterfly with her best time at 2:15," Eric added. "Watching the last Olympics, the women were setting records at 2:08 so 2:15 is still normally top 20 in the top competitions of today, 35 years later.
"She was more dedicated than anyone on her team. She's still like that today. She studies, she still takes classes to keep her brain sharp." Col. Whit Wright, garrison commander, thanked the small crowd that had gathered.
"Thank you all for coming today and this is a great way opportunity to celebrate your birthday," he said. "It's nice to come celebrate with you some of your accomplishments and the dedication and commitment that is required. I just want to say thank you for being a part of our community. This is a really special day."
Wright then presented her with a commander's coin.
Her husband, Eric, explained his reasons for the surprise.
"She's been carrying this stuff around for 20 years in our storage buildings," he said. "And it's just been rotting. And I always wanted to do something with it. It deserves to have something done with it."
He said the Fort Huachuca Arts and Crafts Center helped put together the shadow box and the display with the medallions.
"I just thought this needed recognition," he added. "She spent 10 years, twice a day, two to three hours a day [practicing]. That takes dedication. She does everything to that degree. She's been a role model for me [and] for everybody else."
He then unveiled the shadow box with the pins and ribbons and a display with medallions, both including photos of Svetlana from her days as a swimmer. There were two binders filled with certificates from hundreds of swimming competitions from around the world. Svetlana was presented with a birthday card and the well-wishers filed through to say, "Happy Birthday," and view the displays.
Eric said he met Svetlana in Augsburg, Germany. He was working there as the military intelligence telephone NCO.
"[I was] going to the pool on weekends, and I saw her there, and seeing how she swam, I was amazed."
Gesturing to the towel laying on the table, "She laid out the big red towel from the Soviet [swim] team, and I realized that she wasn't German."
Svetlana became a U.S. citizen in 2012.
He said he felt it was important to preserve all that Svetlana had accomplished.
"We started about six months ago, doing this," Eric said. "The lady at the frame shop started working on it and then she had to leave for a couple of months. I tried to get it done at Christmas time when our daughter was here to help, help her take some of the blame," he joked. "But it didn't get done. But as it turns out this was her birthday. So it all works out."
When asked about her reaction to the birthday surprise, Svetlana said "It was a surprise. I was trying to find a couple of pictures of me a couple of months ago and couldn't find them. Now I understand why," she said as she laughed. "My husband is a great husband. It was a big surprise. Thank you very much."
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