Perlmutter Commemorates Cold War Patriots National Day of Remembrance

Lakewood, CO-- Rep. Ed Perlmutter released the following statement to commemorate Oct. 30, 2009 as Cold War Patriots National Day of Remembrance. Perlmutter spoke on the House Floor this week in support of H Res 790 recognizing Oct. 30 as a national day of remembrance for American nuclear weapons program workers. Click Here to view video of Perlmutter’s speech.


“On November 11th we recognize Veterans Day to honor the sacrifices of the men and women of our armed services. But, for too long we as a nation have neglected to acknowledge another group of patriots who equally and secretly sacrificed in the defense of freedom. That group of American citizens served for over 60 years to develop and construct the United States nuclear arsenal.

The legacy of the thousands of men and women who labored in the mines, nuclear fuel processing facilities and nuclear weapons assembly plants across this nation can be forever enshrined in history by the fact of their role in ending the Cold War.

Today is designated the Cold War Patriots National Day of Remembrance honoring over 700,000 Americans who worked from 1942 to the present day to maintain the nation’s nuclear capabilities.

Many of these Cold War scientists, managers and individual workers whose secret work in building and de-commissioning the United States nuclear arsenal are suffering the adverse health affects of their work in this extremely toxic and radioactive environment. The nation owes a special debt of gratitude to the nuclear workers whose dedication and commitment to excellence built and continues to maintain the US nuclear arsenal.

Colorado’s former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility and thousands of workers played an integral part to enhance this nation’s national security. I and members of the Colorado Delegation agree ill Rocky Flats workers earned the right to a more judicious and fair process in the administration of the EEOICP Act. Senator Udall introduced the Charlie Wolf Act in the Senate and I co-sponsored HR 1828, the companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to broaden the coverage of those eligible workers and improve the administration of the processing of claims.

We owe a great debt to the men and women who served our nation in building the weapons to protect us from the threat of nuclear annihilation and led to the end of the Cold War.