Utah veterans lead effort to create Cold War Victory Medal


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SALT LAKE CITY — Kent Blanco's jacket is covered in patches from his nine years of service during the Cold War — service that largely goes unacknowledged in a war that was largely invisible.

An Army combat arms specialist in Germany and Colorado, Blanco said he always knew he was "in the game."

"I never didn't think the day might come that I was going to be tested," Blanco said Tuesday.

Yet the millions of American soldiers who manned submarines, drove tanks and conducted surveillance from Germany to North Dakota are rarely formally recognized, either with monuments or service medals.

Now Utah may become the fourth state in the U.S. to authorize a Cold War Victory Medal in the tradition of the medals awarded to veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II.

The effort is led by the Utah Veterans of Foreign Affairs and supported by Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, who spoke at a press conference Tuesday about his experiences as a young lieutenant in 1987 "fully prepared to fight the Russians."

"The Cold War was a victory," Stewart said. "The name of the medal is appropriate."

Stewart, a former Air Force pilot, said the medal would honor those men and women "who were willing to sacrifice" their comforts and safety in the anti-communist effort.

Approximately 100,000 Utahns served in the military during the Cold War in various places, from Alaska to Germany to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, according to Kraig Thorne, senior vice commander of VFW Post 4918.

Thorne said the idea to create a state Cold War Victory Medal began brewing after Texas became the first state to authorize its own medal in 2013. Louisiana and Alaska soon followed suit.

Congress first approved of a Cold War service medal in 2001, but then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declined to authorize it.

Rep. Chris Stewart talks about the new Utah Cold War Victory Medal on the front steps of the state Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. (Photo: Kristin Murphy)
Rep. Chris Stewart talks about the new Utah Cold War Victory Medal on the front steps of the state Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. (Photo: Kristin Murphy)

Since then, several bills as recently as the current congressional session have called for a military service medal for Cold War veterans, but none have gained traction.

"So many of my friends and family have had their service basically ignored," Thorne said. "If you haven't watched the James Bond movies, you probably didn't know much about (the Cold War). But it was the war that could have ended humanity."

State legislators Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, and Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, will sponsor the bill to authorize the medal.

Utahns who served between 1946 and the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991 are eligible.

Stewart said he has not received many requests from Cold War veterans to create a medal but attributed that to their humility and sense of duty.

"I don't know many military guys looking for medals," the congressman said.

Blanco agreed. "Medals are just medals," he said. "I never thought about earning medals when I was there. It was real, everyday, get up and do your job."

"(But) it's acknowledgement," Blanco added. "Just for saying you were there."

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