A Journey's End! A Solider, Lawmaker, Husband, Father, Son to a Nation - Laid to Rest - Remember

All the veterans of Enewetak Atoll, who served during the clean-up project during 1977-80 wish to express our sincere appreciation and humbled condolences on the passing of Congressman Mark Takai.

Over the years his vision, support and encouragement in sponsoring H.R. 3870 - The Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act truly shows his understanding and commitment to the affairs of veterans, the military and the nation. We wish to express our sadness and support for his family during this difficult time.

Our group of surviving veterans will miss his humor, dedication and efforts on our behalf. Read about Mark Takai.

We celebrate the warriors of today and those from battles of long ago but we seldom if ever think of the Cold War veterans. During the late 70's and early 80's we were still putting troops in harms way, but in a different ...way.

Take the case of the Enewetak Clean-Up veterans who we sent to a far away atoll in the Pacific to remove and contain the wastes and ions from testing and proving our nuclear weapons. These veterans are now suffering from a variety of cancers and other nuclear exposure related maladies without receiving formal recognition as "Atomic Veterans" .

This is not a Veterans Administration problem, it is a problem of law. There are two matching bills, HR 3870 and S 2791 sitting at the capitol waiting for committee and hopefully one day a vote.

These bills will give these veterans parity with those who were involved in the original tests that caused the need for a clean-up. It is sad that in a military friendly state such as North Carolina that not all our Representatives and Senators are behind the effort to give recognition to these brave troops.

At the DNC event in Philadelphia US House and Senate Colleagues paid tribute to the late U.S. Rep. Mark Takai at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.

“Mark truly had the Aloha spirit and was deeply committed to advancing the priorities of the people of Hawaii and our veterans,” U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said.

Chu spoke on behalf of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to talk about Takai’s hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer.

“I will never forget the tears in his eyes when he learned about the Cancer Moonshot initiative,” she said. “It gave him and millions of Americans hope that we will finally find a cure for cancer. In his memory, we've got to keep hoping and fighting.”

The Cancer Moonshot initiative, led by Vice President Joe Biden, aims to accelerate cancer research by making more therapies available to more patients and also improving the ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage.

Takai died last week at the age of 49.

Rest in Peace - Fallen warrior, congressman, husband, father, community leader - you will be missed! A bill by colleague Congresswomen Grace Meng introduced H.R. 5980: Mark Takai Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act in his honor and legacy.

God Bless!