‘We worked in secrecy’: Cold War-era veterans exposed to radiation demand easier access to VA benefits

WASHINGTON — Incomplete, lost and destroyed military records hinder efforts by some Cold War-era veterans exposed to radiation at the Nevada Test and Training Range and other nuclear weapons sites to collect benefits after a diagnosis of cancer or other serious disease years later, a Nevada lawmaker said.

“The records just weren’t there to show that some people were actually involved in the testing and how much exposure they received,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said Tuesday at an unusual roundtable organized by Democratic lawmakers at the National Atomic Testing Museum, in Las Vegas.

“People not only have had to fight their own diseases, but they have had to fight the government they served during the Cold War to get compensation for the illnesses that evolved over that exposure,” Titus said during a more than two-hour discussion, streamed on YouTube and Facebook, that featured firsthand stories of veterans.

Rep. Mark Takano, of California — the top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee — traveled from the nation’s capital to Nevada to host the discussion and learn from veterans about their efforts to access military records and medical evidence to qualify for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Military service at the Nevada Test and Training Range is not currently classified as a blanket “radiation-risk activity” by the Department of Veterans Affairs for standard disability presumptions, according to lawmakers. Veterans often must provide specific documentation, including radiation dose estimates, to link an illness to their former duties at the site.

“We worked in secrecy and silence during the Cold War and could never speak about what we did,” said Rick Workman, a retired Air Force captain and founder of the Sound of Silence Project.

Sound of Silence (SOS) advocates for Cold War-era nuclear weapons technicians, inspectors and specialists who served between 1945 and 1991.

“We did not know what was being emitted through surfaces of nuclear weapons when we were in close proximity,” said Workman, a former nuclear weapons specialist who served at Nellis Air Force Base, in southern Nevada.

“We were bombarded with gamma and neutron radiation,” said Workman, adding that his organization represents 30,000 Cold War-era veterans who supported, inspected and maintained the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The Cold War, which began shortly after World War II and ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, was defined by geopolitical tensions and a buildup of nuclear arsenals, according to the National World War II Museum.

SOS, The Invisible Enemy and the National Association of Atomic Veterans were among veterans advocacy groups that participated in the roundtable.

The groups pressed Takano, Titus and other Democratic members of Nevada’s delegation to prioritize the PRESUME Act and other bills that would make it easier for radiation-exposed veterans and their dependents to receive VA benefits.

The PRESUME Act stands for Providing Radiation Exposed Servicemembers Undisputed Medical Eligibility Act.

The legislation would end a requirement for some veterans to prove they absorbed a certain level of radiation to qualify for health care and compensation, according to language in the bill.

Titus, who introduced the bill, said that historical radiation dose estimates often are difficult to calculate, inaccurate or missing from a veteran’s military records.

“Simply being present in a known radiation-exposure location — such as during nuclear cleanup or testing — should be enough to grant presumptive status,” Titus said.

The bill was reviewed in February by the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.

“Our veterans do not have the luxury of time when they are standing toe to toe with toxic exposures,” Takano said.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., who serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said that more than 20 years ago Congress passed legislation to provide free medical treatment and compensation for nuclear weapons technicians who became ill after radiation exposure.

Passage of the PACT Act in 2022 also provided support to veterans with illnesses and injuries connected to toxic exposures, she said.

But veterans who served at the Nevada Test and Training Range often were “not able to prove their service and receive the health care they were entitled to,” due to the classified nature of their missions, she said, adding that they continue to struggle for recognition.

The Defense Department today does not classify NTTR as a location where toxic exposures occurred, said Lee, who is leading the PROTECT Act.

The Presumption for Radiation or Toxin Exposure Coverage for Troops Act, or PROTECT Act, specifically provides VA health care coverage and disability benefits to radiation-exposed veterans who became ill after their service at the Nevada Test and Training Range.

The PROTECT Act classifies the Nevada Test and Training Range as contaminated, lawmakers said.

“Veterans stationed from 1972 to 2005 have been denied these benefits. It is embarrassing as a country that we have done that,” said Lee, adding that she has pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to commit to helping “victims of toxic radiation exposure.”

Lee said that Hegseth has promised a response after a DOD review.

Many “downwinders” — families living and working downwind from the Nevada Test Site — as well as former civilian workers became eligible for compensation through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Known as RECA, the legislation provided one-time, tax-free payments for civilians with specific cancers or diseases after exposure to radiation from atomic weapons testing or uranium production, according to Congress.gov.

Linda Chase, who said she could “see mushroom clouds from our front lawn” as a child in southern Nevada in the 1950s, said she has not been able to qualify for compensation.

Her family resided in Clark County, where specific townships are not included in RECA-designated coverage.

Chase said she was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease at age 9 and has had lifelong health problems. She said her father died from cancer.

“We were assured at the time that the nuclear tests did not pose health risks,” said Chase, who worked one summer as a travel agent at Nellis Air Force Base. “We were proud to be serving on the front lines of the Cold War.”

Lee has sought to extend RECA to more Nevada residents exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons tests.

She said the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act also has language for developing a process to assist radiation-exposed veterans with serious diseases who continue to struggle for recognition and benefits.

She said the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act also includes language for developing a process for assisting radiation-exposed veterans who have developed serious diseases but continue to struggle for recognition and benefits.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said his district covers Nellis Air Force Base, Creech Air Force Base and the Nevada Test and Training Range.

“We take pride and responsibility in the work to fight and protect and expand benefits for active duty service members and their families and for veterans,” Horsford said. “We must assure they have access to quality health care.”