Pentagon public affairs chief Doug Wilson plans to retire at the end of March, after two years in the top post and a long PA career.
Wilson sees it as “time to get off the merry-go-round for a break,” adding he will “recharge and look forward again to serving the country in another way.”
Wilson was tapped by Obama and approved by the Senate in late 2009 as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, serving through the end of combat in Iraq, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the NATO-led campaign in Libya.
He was previously with the Defense Department during the Clinton administration and on the Hill. He started out as a Foreign Service Information Officer, including a London posting during the Iran hostage crisis.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta praised Wilson as a “trusted advisor.”
A successor has not yet been nominated and requires Senate confirmation.
Panetta, on moving the Pentagon last summer, brought his top CIA PA aide George Little as a deputy/press secretary under Wilson, along with Navy Capt. John Kirby as deputy/director of media operations.