Melkin, Dmitry (Dima)

Ben Tatiana and Alfred. He was born on February 8, 1975, in Novograd, the Soviet Union. Dmitri was the only child of his parents. When he was one and a half years old, his father died of cancer. Dmitry grew up and was educated with his mother, his grandparents. After a while, his mother married Nathan, who adopted Dmitri, raised and educated him and became a father. Even as a child, Dmitri dreamed of being a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. He studied in the Soviet Union, and when he was sixteen he immigrated with his mother to Israel and was enrolled in an ulpan for the Hebrew language in Haifa. Prior to his enlistment in the IDF, he worked at odd jobs to help support the family, and in mid-June 1993, Dmitri was drafted into the IDF. At the end of his basic training, he was assigned to a maintenance unit and sent to the Maintenance Maintenance Course, where he successfully completed the course, received the rank of corporal and was sent to a food base unit in the northern region. According to his commander, Dmitri was a devoted and independent soldier, who was always an example and a personal example of the other soldiers and was popular with his officers and commanders. In addition to his service, Dmitry asked to complete his studies in the hours following the fulfillment of his duties, and on December 31, 1994, Dmitri fell in the line of duty. During his journey to distribute food to the outposts scattered throughout the Hermon region, Corporal Felix Pavlotzky perished. Dmitry was brought to rest in the military cemetery on the Carmel coast in Haifa. He was nineteen when he fell. Survived by a mother. After his death he was promoted to sergeant. In a letter of condolences to the family, his commander wrote: “… Dimitri, a smiling young man who was always willing to volunteer and help his colleagues in the department in carrying out the tasks.