Bradley Alan Peterson

Captain, U.S. Navy

Bradley Alan Peterson was born on 17 May 1958, in Pennsylvania, the son of the late Garfield E. and Patricia S. Peterson.

Brad entered the U.S. Naval Academy on 6 July 1976 and graduated with the Class of 1980. He pursued a highly distinguished career in the U. S. Navy serving as an active duty submarine officer aboard both the USS Grayling (SSN-646) and the USS Alaska (SSBN-732), and as a reserve intelligence officer, where he served as the Executive Officer of Office of Naval Intelligence 0766 in 1999-2001, Commanding Officer of ONI 0566 in 2001-03, and Chief of Staff in RIA-19/NIRR-Washington, DC, in 2003-05.

While serving in the Naval Reserves, Brad began a career at the U.S. Department of Energy in 1991. He served in the Office of Defense Programs and the Office of Environment, Safety and Health as a Nuclear Safety Engineer, later moving to the Office of Health, Safety and Security as the Director of the Office of Cyber Security Evaluations, and ultimately to Director, Office of Independent Oversight, where he led numerous combined security, cyber security, emergency management, and safety assessments of both NNSA and DOE facilities.

More recently, he served as Chief, Defense Nuclear Security and Associate Administrator for Defense Nuclear Security. At the time of his death, he was serving in Albuquerque, NM, as Principle Deputy Assistant Deputy Administrator Office of Secure Transportation, National Nuclear Security Administration.

For his exemplary service in the DOE, he was awarded the DOE's Presidential Rank Award - Meritorious Executive and the Administrator's Distinguished Service Silver Award.

Captain Bradley Alan Peterson, age 53, died on 7 March 2012, after suffering a severe brain injury in an auto accident in Albuquerque.

In addition to his mother, and two brothers, David Peterson and Mark Peterson, Brad is survived by his three children: Joshua Macgregor Peterson, who will graduate from the U.S. Military Academy in June of this year; Claire Marie Murphy, who followed in her father's footsteps and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2010; and Elizabeth Norene Peterson, who graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 2011.