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Friday, January 21, 2011
A Change of Command
By Charles D. Brunt
Journal Staff Writer
Vowing to continue the work of his predecessor, Brig. Gen. Garrett Harencak enthusiastically took the reins of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base on Thursday.
In a change of command ceremony attended by about 300 airmen and civilians at the base's Mountain View Club, Harencak thanked his boss — Gen. Donald J. Hoffman, the four-star general who heads Air Force Materiel Command — for selecting him to command what he termed a "vital ... and tremendously cool organization."
The Nuclear Weapons Center, set up by the Air Force in March 2006 to address a handful of high-profile lapses in nuclear weapons security, is the steward and logistics manager for the Air Force's nuclear arsenal. Its job is to ensure the availability of safe, secure and reliable nuclear weapons to the Air Force's Global Strike Command if, when and where they might be needed.
Two wings at Kirtland — the 377th Air Base Wing which is the base's host unit, and the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing — are subordinate units to the nuclear weapons center.
In remarks preceding the command change, Hoffman noted that, under Brig. Gen. Everett H. Thomas, who has headed the Nuclear Weapons Center since April 2008, the center's mission had expanded to include the maintenance and storage of operational nuclear weapons.
The independent Federation of American Scientists estimates Kirtland's Underground Munitions Maintenance and Storage Complex, one of two major storage areas for Air Force nuclear weapons, holds more than 2,000 nuclear warheads.
Thomas has been assigned as vice commander of Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La.
Hoffman said Thomas' passion and talent for ferreting out the root cause of problems and addressing them head-on brought the weapons center to a new level.
As of Thursday, Hoffman said, the center is "fully operational capable," meaning it is officially able to meet all of its mission requirements.
Harencak, a 1983 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, is a former commander of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.
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