Retired South Dakota Professors Got More Mileage Out of Military Service

Lester Snyder spent many years as a mechanical engineering professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City.  As with most retired professors, however, there were few requests in later years to speak to groups about higher education or engineering matters.

    In contrast, Snyder found that the Rapid City community had an insatiable appetite for his military service in World War II and the Korean War as a navigator bombardier.  He and fellow Mines electrical engineering professor Lt. Col. Tom Oliver were instrumental in getting the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group off the ground about a decade ago.  USAAF pilot Oliver told of being shot down while piloting a bomber over Nazi-held Yugoslavia, while Snyder had dazzling military experiences in the Pacific, then later in Korea.

    As was noted last month in this column, “Since Iwo Jima was halfway between Tinian and Tokyo, the P-51s were welcomed by B-29 navigator LTC Les Snyder of Rapid City, South Dakota.  Returning from a bombing run from Japan not long after Iwo Jima was secured, Snyder’s shot up and badly burning plane would never have made it back to Tinian.”

    Les Snyder died May 12, 2014, at age 93. He remained active in the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group from the beginning, right up to the end.  He recently was on a personally commander-guided tour and lunch at Ellsworth AFB, along with three other members. They all climbed a high ladder into a B1-B cockpit. He had recently moved into Echo Ridge senior apartments from his longtime home off West Boulevard.

    Both Snyder and Oliver have written up detailed accounts of their wartime experiences, available at the Group’s website at battlestory.org under “World War II” (and “War in Korea” for Snyder).  Ever wanting to get his military story right, Snyder submitted a final manuscript last month detailing his boyhood and life during the two wars that he served in.