Headquarters Battalion's Wofford to speak at breakfast

Lt. Col. Wofford

After returning in February from a tour of duty in Iraq, Lt. Col. Joel Wofford will be the guest speaker at the Knights of Columbus' 2008 Annual Patriotic Breakfast Sunday in Bowie, Md., at 10 a.m.

Wofford serves as the Warrior in Transition unit liaison officer for Headquarters Battalion at Fort Belvoir.

From February 2007 until his return, Wofford was stationed at Camp Victory, just outside Baghdad, as a resource manager for Task Force 134 Detainee Operations Multi-National Forces.

For his speech, Wofford has chosen to focus on the surge and how it affected the treatment and management of detainees in Iraq.

"As a Soldier, you have to be the guy who looks at that and says 'I know you are a bad guy, but I still have to treat you professionally
and make sure you are being cared for in a professional manner," Wofford said. "That can be tough for a teenager, who is a Soldier and is trained to fight the enemy.

"I want to show how the surge impacted us in a sense that our number of detainees drastically increased," Wofford said.

Before his latest tour, Wofford had been deployed three previous times. He served as provost marshal for U.S. Support Group Haiti from May to November 1997; with Multi-National Forces and Observers in Egypt from July 2002 to August 2003; and as action officer for Secretary of the General Staff at U.S. Central Command Headquarters from September 2005 to 2006.

In addition to his deployments, Wofford has been the executive officer and chief of military police investigations for Military Police Company in Fort Huachuca, Ariz.; platoon leader and commander for the 2nd Military Police Company, 2nd Infantry Division in Korea; and chief of Enlisted Training Division, company commander and small group leader for the Military Police Officer Basic Course for the Military Police School at Fort McClellan, Ala.

He has also held positions at Fort Hood, Texas, and at the Pentagon.

At Belvoir, Wofford has been the budget analyst for Headquarters U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command and the executive officer for Headquarters Battalion.

Wofford entered the Army in 1983, after receiving his bachelor's degree from Arkansas State University.

He has attended several military schools including Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Course; Combined Arms Service
School; Command and General Staff College; and the Army's Force Management Course.

Wofford has been awarded the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters and the Joint Service Commendation Medal, among many others.

Wofford has been involved in the Belvoir community as a T-Ball and track coach and a Sunday school teacher at his church.
He and his wife, Mary, have six children.

For more information on attending the breakfast, contact Don Aitcheson at 301-352-0947.