[2] As a lieutenant colonel, he served in the G-3 section of the Fifth Army staff under Major General Alfred M. Gruenther, future NATO supreme commander.

"[3] As staff secretary, Wood dealt with a diverse set of issues ranging from critical tasks such as helping the planning group organize itself while concurrently working out the nature and organization of the command as a whole, developing the necessary infrastructure, and transitioning the previous planning groups into the actual command headquarters organization;[4] to comparatively trivial tasks such as devising the SHAPE logo and motto[5] and rescheduling the SHAPE activation date to avoid April Fool's Day.

[1] On 1 July 1957, Wood was assigned as the Army's Deputy Chief of Research and Development, working on a variety of projects including antimissile weapons[7] and germ and gas warfare systems.

The Rogers Board's members included Major Generals Hamilton H. Howze, Thomas F. Van Natta, Alva R. Fitch, Richard D. Meyer, Ernest F. Easterbrook, and chairman Lieutenant General Gordon B. Rogers; and its results prefigured the more influential Howze Board on airmobility.

The Director of Military Assistance supervised the operational details of arms transfer to NATO allies and other friendly countries, as guided by the State Department.

[2] He subsequently served on a presidential task force on international development and consulted for the Research Analysis Corporation in McLean, Virginia.