America Honors Its Atomic Veterans

America detonated the world's first nuclear device in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

On its 76th anniversary, U.S. president Biden issued a proclamation: Many brave men and women have risked their lives in service to our Nation, but few know the story of our "Atomic Veterans" — American military service members who participated in nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, served with United States military forces in or around Hiroshima and Nagasaki through mid-1946, or were held as prisoners of war in or near Hiroshima or Nagasaki. These veterans served at testing sites like the Bikini Atoll and witnessed the destructive power of nuclear weapons firsthand.

On National Atomic Veterans Day, we recognize and honor the contributions of America's Atomic Veterans for their sacrifice and dedication to our Nation's security, and recommit to supporting our Atomic Veterans and educating ourselves on the role these patriots played in our national story.

Atomic Veterans served our Nation with distinction, but their service came at a great cost. Many developed health conditions due to radiation exposure, yet because they were not able to discuss the nature of their service, they were unable to seek medical care or disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for their illnesses. Decades later in 1996, the United States Congress repealed the Nuclear Radiation and Secrecy Agreements Act, allowing Atomic Veterans to tell their stories and file for benefits. By then, thousands of Atomic Veterans had died without their families knowing the true extent of their service.

Our Nation has one truly sacred obligation: to properly prepare and equip our troops when we send them into harm's way, and to care for them and their families when they return from service. As Commander in Chief, I am committed to fulfilling our obligation to the Atomic Veterans and their families, and ensuring that all of our Nation's veterans have timely access to needed services, medical care, and benefits. On this National Atomic Veterans Day, our country remembers the service and sacrifices of Atomic Veterans. Their heroism and patriotism will never be forgotten and we always honor their bravery and devotion to duty.
July 16, 2021 was named "National Atomic Veterans Day."

The proclamation ended with a call on all Americans "to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities that honor our Nation's Atomic Veterans whose brave service and sacrifice played an important role in the defense of our Nation."

Thanks For The Cancer

[zenlessyank]

3 cheers for cancer!

Don't forget the Agent Orange veterans

[Pinky's Brain]

Must remember all the brave souls fighting the good fight.

Don't forget the Veterans of Foreign Whores

[deodiaus2]

Lest their their sacrifices be in vain!

Re:

[Dusanyu]

Are you talking the people who developed it or the infantrymen who were exposed to the crap while fighting a war that they were forced to, how about the children of those soldiers who died early from birth defects caused by exposure to poison? I went to too many funerals as a kid for friends who died because their dads were exposed to Agent Orange.

Command & Control

[Digital Mage]

I highly recommend seeing (or reading) the excellent Command & Control on the history of nuclear weapon development and how close the US was to a weapon detonation in Arkansas. Its quite amazing the sacrifices those who worked with nuclear weapons endured.

You can watch here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ameri... [pbs.org]

Re:

[The Real Dr John]

I also recommend Daniel Ellsberg's The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (2017). An excellent account of the absurdity of our nuclear war "planning".

Cast and Crew of "The Conqueror"

[mykepredko]

As ridiculous as it seems to cast John Wayne as Genghis Khan (IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]), it seems very plausible that the movie's cast and crew were knowingly allowed to film in locations that were still radioactively "hot" with the US government tracking their health in the years afterward. https://www.theguardian.com/fi... [theguardian.com]

So, will they be included in the memorial?

So to speak...

[boundary]

Glowing accolades.

Atomic veterans?

[GuB-42]

You means veterans you can't cut into pieces?

They are not going to win any race, but they are certainly consistent.

Too little, way too late

[tweissin]

Wouldnâ(TM)t it be better to proclaim that any future top secret activities like this would be handled such that lives could be saved in the future? History is probably being repeated as we speak and those impacted may be dying because of inadequate care because they canâ(TM)t come forward with the true reason for their medical issues.

Remember WHY those tests were necessary!

[couchslug]

Take time to understand WHY those tests were militarily necessary during an era where tactical and strategic nuclear war was PRACTICAL making training to wage it mandatory.

Pearl clutching from the era of MAD (which keeps the peace today because humans are a savage race who only respect power and brute force which trump everything else) came mostly afterwards.

The atomic tests provided (in the only way practical, get over it) information necessary to developing operational strategy, tactics, methods and procedures for all the armed forces and civil defense. (In limited nuclear war even the ignorantly maligned "duck and cover" made sense for reasons demonstrated by conventional explosions today, it doesn't pay to get a broken glass facial from a survivable blast.)

The atomic tests demonstrated effects on shipping (steel makes dandy protection if you're far enough out) and familiarity demystified nukes for ground troops expected to operate on contaminated ground. Those tests (by NATO and the ComBloc) birthed the concept of the modern APC as a battle taxi/blast shelter operating in conjunction with tanks where soft-skinned vehicles would have burned. They proved what shelters worked and what did not.

Most importantly, they PROVED various warhead and delivery systems would work in an era when that was not guaranteed (it still isn't). One cannot make sound strategy based on wishful thinking.

In the modern era when pearl clutching is a secular religion we forget the perspective of the men who had just fought and won the Second World War. Calculated sacrifice is what wins wars (Slapton Sands was bloody training but helped win the Normandy invasion) and in the case of atomic testing greatly helped deter atomic war by proving the inconvenience of tactical nuclear war (we don't do that for the same reasons we banned lethal war gases, which are that nobody's soldiery want to fight in that shit!) and the cost of strategic exchange which must be reserved to exterminate opponents its threat fails to deter.

The sacrifices of the atomic veterans were unfortunate, but the lessons learned were well worth the cost in dead and maimed Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines (and various contractors not to be forgotten). They were a vital part of the first Cold War. We are now in the second and should never, ever forget it.

Does Atomic Veterans include Hanford Downwinders?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Does the group honored include the "Hanford Downwinders"?

This is a "Marginal Population" (to quote the researchers) of reservation Indians, poor whites, and others residing on or near the Indian reservation into which the Hanford Experiment [wikipedia.org] released thousands of curies of Iodine-131 and other radioactive materials in the early years of the Cold War.

Apparently this was done, at least in part, to see what the health effects of the radiation exposure would be. An Indian reservation was convenient for this, because the government operated the health service, making it easy to track the medical records of those exposed.

Similarly for the Mormons, Indians, and others (including the people filming at least one major Hollywood movie, notably including John Wayne) in the portion of Utah including St. George [theguardian.com], where the fallout from the atmospheric nuclear tests was allowed to settle. (The tests were scheduled so the wind carried the fallout in that direction, mainly so it would miss Las Vegas.)

Re:

[argStyopa]

I know your point here is to illustrate the victimization of brown people, but let's point out that the US gov't decisions back then were callous TO EVERYONE.

Including white suburban schoolchildren:
https://www.wondersandmarvels.... [wondersandmarvels.com]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com... [smithsonianmag.com]

Re:

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Also biological agents and the entire commuting population of New York City [washingtonpost.com].

The bug they used was a "bad enough cold" that some victims would visit hospitals, which let them get a measure of how many were catching it and where.

Interestingly, this first came to light when Glen Roberts FOIAed the CIA (starting with a request for their procedures for responding to FOIAs B-) ) and got some of their petty cash records. He found stuff billed to a particular project that included modifications to a car and car w

Not just "brown people". Anyone but the elite.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I know your point here is to illustrate the victimization of brown people, but let's point out that the US gov't decisions back then were callous TO EVERYONE.

Not just "brown people". Everyone but those they considered the elite. That usually (though not always) includes the one-percenters, members of political families, graduates of ivy league schools, and the like.

Note that your two examples are:
- A swath of mainly rural and what we'd now call "red" states and industrial areas. (Yes, S.F. was am

wow the propaganda machine is in full swing

[elcor]

soon announcement re opening nuclear facilities and building new ones