AFNWC gains new commander Published Feb. 7, 2013 By 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs KIRTLAND AFB, N.M. -- Brig. Gen. Sandra Finan assumed command of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center from Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak in an 8:45 a.m. ceremony here Thursday, Feb. 7, at Base Operations in Hangar 333. Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, was the presiding officer. Most recently, Finan served as the Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application, Office of Defense Program, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy. In that position, she assisted the deputy administrator in directing the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which maintains the safety, security and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. This includes three national research laboratories, the Nevada Test Site and four production plants. The program has an annual budget of approximately $5.2 billion. Finan has been nominated for promotion to major general. She entered the Air National Guard in 1982 as an enlisted cryptographic equipment repair specialist and received her Air Force commission in 1985 as a distinguished graduate of Officer Training School. The general has served in a variety of space and missile assignments in missile crew operations; training and evaluations; satellite command and control; and satellite operations. She has held staff assignments as executive assistant to the Director of Security and Emergency Operations with the Department of Energy, and National Military Command System command and control officer at U.S. Strategic Command. In addition, she served on the 20th Air Force staff and as a command evaluator at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Previous assignments also include serving as the Inspector General for Air Force Global Strike Command. She has commanded a space operations squadron and missile wing, and deployed to the Combined Air Operations Center as the Director of Space Forces in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Harencak, the outgoing AFNWC commander, has been selected for reassignment as Assistant Chief of Staff, Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, Headquarters United States Air Force, Pentagon. The 1983 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy assumed command of the AFNWC in January 2011. The AFNWC is composed of a headquarters staff, one wing and two wing-equivalent directorates: the 377th Air Base Wing and Nuclear Capabilities Directorate at Kirtland AFB; and the ICBM Systems Directorate at Hill AFB, Utah. The AFNWC comprises more than 3,500 Airmen at 11 locations in the United States and Europe and is responsible for the entire scope of nuclear weapons sustainment functions.