By Kathie Rowell

In 1963, then brand-new college graduate Col. Thomas E. Snodgrass, USAF (Ret), could see the conflict in Vietnam was heating up. He decided to join the Air Force to fight from the air instead of on the ground.

“They gave me an eye test and said, ‘What else would you like to do?’ I said, ‘Well, I'm pretty good at history and language.’ They said, ‘OK’ and put me into signals intelligence.”

That beginning turned into a 30-year military career, primarily in intelligence, and a subsequent civilian career as an educator.

Snodgrass’ early assignments saw him serving around the world in various intelligence roles intercepting Soviet and Chinese Communist radio transmissions and controlling access and analysis of sensitive intercepted communications.  

Career highlights include serving in Vietnam as the officer-in-charge of Airborne Radio Direction Finding for U.S. Military Assistance Command, serving in a diplomatic position negotiating and implementing the 1979 Panama Canal treaty, and an assignment as air attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Communist Warsaw, Poland, where he functioned as both a diplomat and an intelligence collector.

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He also served in the role of educator, teaching counterinsurgency, unconventional warfare, and psychological operations; Soviet foreign policy; and military history and strategy, with his last position at the Air War College.

Those experiences led him to a civilian career teaching American history and American military history at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona until he retired in 2011.

“My first and foremost goal was to educate my students on what we were facing as a society,” said Snodgrass, a member of MOAA’s Northern Arizona Chapter, pictured with his wife, Susan.

He was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in humanities.

Lt. Col. Edward Hume, USAF (Ret), has known Snodgrass since the 1980s when their tours overlapped at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Snodgrass was the superintendent’s executive officer, and Hume was the deputy head of the Law Department. When Hume moved in 1995 to the same Arizona town where Snodgrass resides, they crossed paths at church, and the two became friends.

“His knowledge and experience are extensive about national security and international relations in which I had some involvement and a great interest,” Hume said. “In addition to many discussions in this area of mutual interest, we also participated in presenting renewal weekend retreats in Arizona for our religious denomination. Tom’s faith and character [are] in my opinion exemplary and strong.”

Kathie Rowell is a writer based in Louisiana.