In 1997 Wood was assigned as a case officer in Pakistan, working under Chief of Station Gary Schroen on operations to find and capture Osama bin Laden, a role he would hold throughout the leadup to the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Building on the agency's existing relationship with the Northern Alliance, the team collected intelligence on the Taliban, reporting the latest developments back to Headquarters every two hours.

[7] Small and highly agile paramilitary mobile teams, including CTC Special Operations, or CTC/SO, headed by Hank Crumpton, Greg Vogle,[8] and others followed the NALT, spreading out over the countryside during the day to meet with locals and gather information about the Taliban and al-Qa’ida.

He took the reins of station in Afghanistan at the same time as agency officers who spent years hunting Osama Bin Laden finally found their man.

During his appointment, the controversial wide-ranging targeted killing program was the subject of multiple investigations, with President Obama announcing new scrutiny just days before he entered the position, saying "I don't want our intelligence agencies being a paramilitary organization.