U.S. Rep. Blake Moore to present atomic medal to local veteran

On Tuesday evening, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) will present the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal to former Sonarman Third Class Paul R. LaMont in recognition of his faithful service aboard the USS Preston during nuclear testing in 1962.

NORTH LOGAN – U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) will visit here to present the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal to former Sonarman Third Class Paul R. LaMont on Tuesday, May 2.

The ceremony will take place at the Dan Gyllenskog Veterans Resource Center in North Logan at 5 p.m.

The medal will recognize LaMont’s “faithful service aboard the USS Preston during Operation Dominic,” a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1962.

The USS Preston (DD-795) was a Fletcher-class destroyer. Following combat service in both World War II and the Korean conflict, that vessel joined a task force that monitored numerous nuclear blasts off Christmas and Johnson islands in the Central Pacific.

Operation Dominic occurred during a period of increased Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Incensed by the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev renounced a previous three-year moratorium on nuclear testing in August of 1961.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy responded by authorizing Operation Dominic. It was to be the largest nuclear weapons testing program ever conducted by the United States and the last atmospheric testing by the U.S. prior to the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

Operation Dominic would include a total of 36 tests. The majority of the blasts — 29 airdrops — were weapons development tests, intended to evaluate advanced designs that U.S. labs had been cooking up during the years of the moratorium and before.

Sixty years after Operation Dominic, the Defense Department established the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal (AVCSM) in 2022. That decoration is intended to commemorate the service and sacrifice of veterans instrumental in the development of our nation’s atomic and nuclear weapons programs.

The AVCSM recognizes that the service and sacrifice of atomic veterans who directly contributed to our freedom and prosperity after World War II and were pivotal to our nation’s defense during the Cold War.

Veterans eligible for the medal are those who served during the period of July 1, 1945, to October 1, 1992.

The Dan Gyllenskog Veterans Resource Center is operated by the Cache Valley Veterans Association.

It is located in Suite 100 at 1760 North, 200 East in North Logan.

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