Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment Raymond F. DuBois Jr. announced today the selection of Philip Wayne Grone as the principal assistant deputy under secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment. DuBois also announced that John Paul Woodley Jr. is now the assistant deputy under secretary of Defense for Environment.
DuBois said that both appointments are part of a new, streamlined organization that combines the previous separate offices of environmental security and installations into one office focusing senior-level leadership on initiatives and efforts directed by the Congress, the president, and the secretary of Defense.
Grone will serve as DuBois's chief of staff with management and oversight responsibilities for military installations worldwide. He will work primarily on matters pertaining to military bases, including military construction programs, base closures and reutilization, housing and housing privatization, energy and utilities privatization and competitive sourcing. His priorities include an assessment of the department's overall real property infrastructure with a focus to sustain, modernize, and recapitalize all DoD installations and facilities.
Grone comes to the Pentagon with more than 16 years of Capitol Hill experience. Prior to assuming his present position, he served as deputy staff director for the House Armed Services Committee, as well as staff director of the Military Installations and Facilities Subcommittee. In that position, he led the staff development of the annual military construction bill that provides money for the building of barracks, airfields, family housing, and day care centers.
Woodley will serve as the principal assistant and advisor to DuBois for all environmental, safety, and occupational health policies and programs in DoD. Those programs include cleanup at active and closing bases, compliance with environmental laws, conservation of natural and cultural resources, pollution prevention, environmental technology, fire protection, safety and explosive safety, and pest management and disease control for Defense activities worldwide. He will also advise DuBois on international military agreements and programs pertaining to environmental security.
Woodley's priorities will include an assessment of DoD's environmental readiness with a particular focus on strengthening the department's environmental management systems and responding to the challenges of encroachment, the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, unexploded ordnance management and explosive safety, and pollution prevention.
Woodley comes to the department from the Commonwealth of Virginia where he served as Secretary of Natural Resources since 1998. As an active duty Army officer, Woodley joined the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps in 1979 and was assigned to the 1st Armored Division in Germany. He also served at the Pentagon in the Litigation Division of the Office of The Judge Advocate General of the Army. Woodley is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, currently serving as a military judge with the Army Trial Judiciary.
