17 January 2008

Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs
Joseph R. Wood to Visit Lithuania

Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs Joseph R. Wood will visit Lithuania January 17 - 18.  Mr. Wood is traveling to Vilnius to attend the Snow Summit and meet with Lithuanian government leaders to discuss bilateral issues.

Biographical information about Mr. Wood:

Joseph R. Wood is Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs, with responsibility for policy involving Europe, Eurasia, Africa, the UN, and defense matters.  He earlier served in the Office of the Vice President from 2001 to 2003 on detail from the Air Force, serving as Special Advisor for National Security Affairs responsible for European issues. He is a retired Air Force colonel, and his career included operational and command fighter assignments in Korea and Europe; a faculty position at the U.S. Air Force Academy in the Department of Political Science; and duty at the Pentagon as speech writer and politico-military affairs officer for the Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force.  He held temporary assignments in the Joint Staff, the U.S. Mission to the Conventional Forces in Europe Talks in Vienna, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and SHAPE Headquarters in Mons, Belgium.  After retiring from the Air Force, he worked at NASA and the RAND Corporation before returning to the White House in his present position.  He is a graduate of the Air Force Academy in Colorado and the French Joint Defense College in Paris, and he holds a Masters degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where his studies focused on security policy and European politics.  He is married and has two daughters.