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Colonel <em>Richard Concklin Snyder</em>, the youngest son of Dr. Howard McCrum Snyder and Alice Concklin Snyder, was born on May 17, 1922 at Fort Leavenworth, KS. Dr. Snyder had a distinguished career in medicine, culminating in being personal physician to General then President Eisenhower from 1946 until Eisenhower’s death.</p>
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Colonel Snyder was a 1943 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY and served initially as a P-47 instructor pilot at Fort Dix, NJ. In World War II, he was a fighter pilot assigned to the 78th Fighter Group, 82nd Squadron, of the 8th Air Force stationed in Duxford, England. In September 1944, while piloting a P-47 as part of Operation Market Garden, he was shot down over Holland. He was captured and spent the next nine months as a POW in prison camp Stalag Luft 1, Barth, Germany.</p>
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Following his release from prison camp, Colonel Snyder served three years as an academic instructor at West Point. In 1948, as the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, he volunteered for duty as part of “Operation Vittles” and the Berlin Airlift, for which he piloted a C-54 hauling loads of coal and steel rebar. He subsequently became an aircraft commander in the USAF’s Strategic Air Command flying B-29s.</p>
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In 1950, Colonle Snyder was one of the early officers to earn the additional aeronautical ratings of Navigator, Bombardier, and Radar Observer, allowing him to fly the first swept-wing intercontinental bomber, the B-47 Stratojet. From 1952 to 1954 he was an aircraft commander and squadron operations officer. He then became Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Arthur W. Radford. That assignment was followed by service with the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division (AFBMD) in Inglewood, CA, where he worked closely with Major General Bernard A. Schriever, Commander of AFBMD. He retired from the Air Force in 1965.</p>
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From 1965 to 1985 he was Vice President, Government Relations, for TRW Inc.</p>
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Colonel Snyder was actively involved in the Boy Scouts of America. He was committee chairman of the largest Boy Scout troop in Alexandria, VA, District Scout Commissioner for Alexandria, and in 1969 earned the highest adult award in scouting, The Silver Beaver, from the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He was also an honorary member of the Order of the Arrow. He was a longtime active member of St. Mary’s Whitechapel Episcopal Church in Lancaster, VA, where he served as junior warden and Treasurer.</p>
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He is survived by his wife, Mary, and two sons: Peter P. Snyder (Beth) of Havertown, PA; and Stephen S. Snyder (Eric Fishman) of Silver Spring, MD. He is also survived by his grandchildren: Christopher M. Snyder, Richard M. Snyder, and Robert P. Snyder; and three great-grandchildren.</p>