For decades, members of the military who participated in the U.S. atomic testing program have pushed to be recognized for their service. Hundreds of thousands were involved in atmospheric tests, mostly in the Pacific and in Nevada between 1946 and 1962.
Bills were introduced earlier this month in both the House and Senate that would create a service medal for these atomic veterans.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced a measure calling for an “Atomic Veterans Service Medal, to honor retired and former members of the Armed Forces who are radiation-exposed veterans.”
The 2017 House National Defense Authorization Act also includes a provision to create a service medal for atomic veterans.
This isn’t the first attempt by members of Congress to create such a medal. Previous bills never made it out of committee.
Recognition would mean a lot to veterans who say they feel like they were used as “guinea pigs” in more than 200 atmospheric and underwater atomic tests.
“We did it for the country, not just ourselves,” said Frank Farmer, who participated in a series of tests in the Marshall Islands in 1958. “If it was for me, I wouldn’t have gone over there, but it’s for the country. When you sign up, you sign your life away, and they should be able to recognize people for that, regardless of what era they were serving in.”
A May report by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting examined atomic veterans’ struggle for compensation and recognition. Our reporting included a documentary published with Retro Report and an interactive map of atmospheric tests.
Jennifer LaFleur can be reached at jlafleur@cironline.org. Follow her on Twitter: @j_la28.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Republish Our Content
Thanks for your interest in republishing a story from Reveal. As a nonprofit newsroom, we want to share our work with as many people as possible. You are free to embed our audio and video content and republish any written story for free under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license and will indemnify our content as long as you strictly follow these guidelines:
-
Do not change the story. Do not edit our material, except only to reflect changes in time and location. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
-
Please credit us early in the coverage. Our reporter(s) must be bylined. We prefer the following format: By Will Evans, Reveal.
-
If republishing our stories, please also include this language at the end of the story: “This story was produced by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.”
-
Include all links from the story, and please link to us at https://www.revealnews.org.
PHOTOS
-
You can republish Reveal photos only if you run them in or alongside the stories with which they originally appeared and do not change them.
-
If you want to run a photo apart from that story, please request specific permission to license by contacting Digital Engagement Producer Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org. Reveal often uses photos we purchase from Getty and The Associated Press; those are not available for republication.
DATA
-
If you want to republish Reveal graphics or data, please contact Data Editor Soo Oh, soh@revealnews.org.
IN GENERAL
-
We do not compensate anyone who republishes our work. You also cannot sell our material separately or syndicate it.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, please contact Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If you plan to republish our content, you must notify us republish@revealnews.org or email Sarah Mirk, smirk@revealnews.org.
-
If we send you a request to remove our content from your website, you must agree to do so immediately.
-
Please note, we will not provide indemnification if you are located or publishing outside the United States, but you may contact us to obtain a license and indemnification on a case-by-case basis.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at republish@revealnews.org.