(Radio Iowa) – An Iowan is now the holder of the “Order of the Gray Dragon” recognizing the person with the earliest entry date into the U-S Nuclear Weapons Program. Navy veteran Robert Mowry was given the award by the Navy Nuclear Weapons Association after the previous Dragon died. He told K-C-R-G T-V he didn’t know what he was getting into.

“I went into Special Weapons Unit 1233 in January 1953 from boot camp. Had no idea what a special weapons was. Gun that shoots around the corner? What? Had no idea,” he says. Mowry’s job was to inspect the atomic bombs, and he did it for five days a week for two-and-a-half years. He was never able to tell anyone about his service until 1996 with the repeal of the Nuclear Radiation and Secrecy Agreements Act. The president of the Navy Nuclear Weapons Association, Kris Hobbs, tells K-C-R-G T-V that those who worked on nuclear weapons are a dying breed.

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s going on here that they’ve received… radiation exposure and so forth—that the V-A is not recognizing it a lot. So it’s good for us to recognize the oldest one here,” Hobbs says. Mowry watched 17 atomic bombs explode in the Marshall Islands.  “You heard the sound wave come across….watch the mushroom cloud rise and disperse and see if it was going to flow over you,” Mowry says.

Robert Mowry. (KCRG TV)

Mowry is still here, grateful that so many friends and family came to celebrate his service.  “What I did was very unusual. There aren’t many people that did what I did…I’m very proud, very proud of my service,” Mowry says.

Mowry was presented the award this past weekend in Williamsburg,