Major General Joseph Anderson is the former associate director and deputy director of the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Anderson served 33 years in the United States Marine Corps. He flew 219 combat missions and commanded every echelon of marine aviation. He served as director of operations, command, control, computers and intelligence (C4I) and vice commander of the Naval Air Systems Command. He completed his career as a major general in command of the 1^st Marine Aircraft Wing in Japan. After his service, Anderson was vice president for business development at Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corp. in Hood River, Ore., and then corporate vice president of the Dalcorp Advisory Group in Ashburn, Va.

Anderson has served on the boards of the Navy Federal Credit Union, Peduzzi Associates Ltd., the Congaree Group, OperationVetsHaven, Digital Reasoning Systems, Inc., and Draken International. He has served for three terms as Chairman of the Board of Directors at Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Navy League and founded NASM on the Road, an outreach utilizing the artifacts of the National Air and Space Museum to generate quality opportunities for recuperating service personnel and veterans.

Anderson has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused and neglected children in Fairfax County, Va. He was a member of the Board of Advisors for the National Museum of the United States Air Force and is a member of the Marine Corps Aviation Association and the Early and Pioneer Naval Aviation Association (Golden Eagles). He is also a Society of Experimental Test Pilots member and has served as a consultant to the Air Force Science Advisory Board Secretary. He joined the team of fellow Marine aviator, Art Nalls, who restored the world’s only civilian-owned Harrier, in which he performed as an airshow pilot with an Acrobatic Competency rating. As of 2017, he retired from the air show circuit.

Anderson worked with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University as an online adjunct professor. Anderson earned a B.S. in engineering from the US Naval Academy and an M.S. in systems engineering from the University of Southern California. His military education included the US Air Force Flight School, the US Naval Test Pilot School, and the National War College.