National Atomic Veterans Day 2023 (US): Date, History, Significance, Facts

It is National Atomic Veterans Day. I still wonder why the Government “for the people and by the people of the United States” waited 75 years to start handing out the medals to the Atomic Veterans? What should have happened shortly after the end of the cold war, the commemorative medal award process began just a year ago after an equally flawed effort was initiated to offer them a Atomic Veteran certificate. Most living National Atomic Veterans Day are nearing their life-expectancy and dying. For those who are already dead, they must now rise up from the grave or have a surviving relative request to apply for the medal using knowledge that the veteran was told never to disclose to anyone. This is an embarrassment to me because this is obviously not how a commemoration program is supposed to work.

Our dragon-keeping veterans were honor-bound under law to keep their secrets as well-kept secrets in a program that was also a well-kept secret. When asked by a local news reporter, a Navy nuclear weapons technician’s daughter explained that her father “just sits around all day drinking coffee.”