Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this toxic legacy, Ward believes, is that victims of uranium mining, whether miners or innocents caught in the crosswinds, will remain forgotten soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in the Cold War.

"The Cold War mentality was one where most people accepted there was a war on and there would be casualties," Ward said.

As more and more evidence from the Cold War is made public, those casualties are coming to see what they have all long suspected: Everyone knew the risks except for those actually taking the risks.

Eunice Manzanares didn't know the risks. She was an eighth-grader who suddenly stopped coming to school. "The next thing I knew she had died," said Maughan, her teacher.

"It was leukemia, just like the others," he said. "There is no question in my mind who is at fault."

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