Nuclear test soldier
After the second world war, the United States of America was really going all out on testing its nuclear weapons. It was this new and awesome power that had the potential to win wars with some single bomb. It also has the potential to kill all of us if we use it on each other.
Needless to say, because humans are curious creatures, we thought it would be a great idea to develop it further. Of course, we needed to see what the effects of the bomb had on soldiers, so high-ranking generals would send them out to the test site after an explosion for research.