Retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch has been chosen as the second recipient of the John S. Foster Jr. Medal, established last year by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The award honors “innovative and inspirational leadership in providing a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent to ensure international peace and strategic stability,” the lab said in a press release Thursday. The inaugural award was given last year to John Foster, who became LLNL director in 1965 and advanced the nuclear weapon design that serves as a basis for modern U.S. nuclear weapons.
Welch’s decades of service in the Air Force include four years as its 12th chief of staff, serving as one of the principal military advisers to the secretary of defense, National Security Council, and the president, the lab said. Welch also served as commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command, involved in operational planning for U.S. strategic nuclear systems, it said. He is now a senior fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses.
The lab will honor Welch during a Sept. 26 ceremony at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. The event will feature a number of speakers and a panel on the future of extended deterrence. Madelyn Creedon, principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, is among the scheduled speakers. Elaine Bunn, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense, and Linton Brooks, former NNSA administrator, will be among those participating in the panel discussion.
