GRANTS - A nationwide tour and petition signing was kicked off on April 28 at the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce and New Mexico Mining Museum. The purpose of the grassroots event was to gather signatures in support of a National Day of Remembrance Act.

Lloyd R. Salvador drove from Zuni to sign the petition. BEACON / KATHRYN MARMON

The petition to honor former nuclear workers and uranium miners who proudly served their country will be presented to Congress to encourage bringing the act to a vote.

The petition signing was also held in Tennessee and will continue across the nation.

Signers of the petition traveled from Zuni, Belen, Albuquerque and other distant communities to participate.

Nancy Wilson, a graduate of Grants High School, traveled from Belen with her sisters-in-law Jean Van De Valde and Fran Womack, on behalf on her husband and their brother, Larry Wilson, who died in 2008 of lung cancer. The latter Wilson was a chemist for Anaconda Mines and worked for six years without any protection cooking yellow cake and inhaling dangerous chemicals.

After that, Wilson worked for Aerojet-General Corporation on the Polaris missile project. Wilson said she sometimes received a phone call that military doctors were going to keep her husband and other workers overnight due to their exposure to too much of the nuclear chemical they were working with.

Wilson's father was also a mineworker and she lost him at age 64. According to Wilson, her father worked in uranium mines in Grants and Wyoming with other miners who were so dedicated they would continue working even after their protective badges had changed color from overexposure.

“The bosses took their badges, gave them a new one and sent them back to work,” Wilson said. “Some of the workers would hide their badges because they wanted to work.”

Her father, who worked on the mining equipment underground, also suffered cuts on his hands, increasing his exposure.

The petition site was overseen by Barbara J. Escajeda, RN and regional vice-president of clinical outreach for Professional Case Management.

“This is a step to educate the public as to who the Cold War Patriots were,” Escajeda said.

Recalling another CWP and client of PCM, Escajeda commented, “Jack (Viles) told me there wasn't a time when you didn't feel you were going to die.”

“This is an industry that was done in secret,” she continued. “They weren't allowed to talk about what they were doing.”

Escajeda and other petition organizers believe strongly, “Now is the time to remember them, and the part they had to play in our strategic defense mechanism, before they are all gone.”

“We spend millions of dollars on bailouts and we need to take care of those people who risked their lives for a cause that protected our nation for years,” said Escajeda.