Sign from the Plum Brook Reactor Facility warns of radiation. (Photo: DVIDS)
7 May 2021
When Robert Celestial arrived on Lowja Island in the Marshall Islands Enewetak Atoll in 1977, he was given a shovel and gloves and told to get to work. Like his fellow troops, he waded into the muck at the bottom of an atomic bomb crater and began digging.
He was dressed in shorts. We were young soldiers. We didn t know what we were doing, Celestial told Military.com last year. So many of my friends have passed away.
Since at least 2018, Celestial has worked for passage of the Mark Takai Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act, a bill that would recognize hundreds of veterans who participated in decontamination and containment work in Enewetak from 1977 to 1980 as atomic veterans.
Last November, days after the election and the firing of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller ordered U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, to report directly to him, putting it on par with the other military services for the first time.
As he announced the change Nov. 18, Miller said that it would streamline the decision-making process and improve the agility of SOCOM and the Defense Department.
In Wednesday s memo, Austin said that the assistant secretary, who oversees SOCOM, will move back under the undersecretary of defense for policy effective immediately.
But the assistant secretary will still report directly to the secretary of defense in exercising authority, direction and control of all special operations peculiar administrative matters relating to the organization, training, and equipping of special operations forces, the memo states.