Zephyr Net

Saddened by this news. RIP sir.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... -snodgrass

I met him once in 2003, and had no idea who he was. He flew Jim Reed's Korean-era Corsair in Oshkosh that year.

It was the only time I'd been to Oshkosh, the first time I'd been flown to an airshow, and the first time an aircraft I had worked on directly that I got to see fly in an airshow.

Years prior, the Blue Angels came and swapped out some wheel assemblies from my AIMD airframe shop. Yes, my work flew on Blue Angel F/A-18s.

Back to Snodgras. He told my co-worker Ben that if Ben came to NAS Oceana to help with an airshow, that Snodgras would get Ben some simulator time. I told Ben don't be surprised if that doesn't happen; you can't trust Navy Officers to keep their word. Sure enough, Ben didn't get simulator time, just an excuse instead.

Ben later on donated everything he and his wife had, and began flying for one of those Christian organizations (I forget the name). At one of the villages, he heard the screams of children drowning. He rushed in to save them, but managed to drown with them instead. He left behind a wife and young son. A great guy and hero in my book.

Side note: Ben allowed me to fly Jim Reeds T-34 (he owned a lot of warbirds) from the back seat on the way back from Oshkosh. He originally wanted me to use his camera to take pictures of Chicago. I told him to take the pictures himself, and I'll fly instead. With a little convincing, he agreed. (I had either 113 or 117 logged hours flying total, but wasn't current since 1997).

Snodgras lived a charmed life. I can't feel bad for him.

I made a dedication to 'Snort' on my website.
http://myplace.frontier.com/~usnraptor/

Nice job...

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Thanks. It took a couple hours. It is comprised of two pictures. One picture from the deck of clear sky. The second of the Tomcat in a bank. Then a whole lot of copy paste of the F-14 on to the first picture.

For those interested, videos of the actual crash are up on Youtube.