THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310550
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 75 lines
The Navy fighter pilot credited with giving Oceana Naval Air Station's F-14 Tomcats new muscle - and, perhaps, extending the life of the aging jet - bid a reluctant goodbye to the plane and his fellow aviators Thursday.
``What if I said, `No'?'' quipped Capt. Dale O. ``Snort'' Snodgrass, who ended his stint as commander of the Atlantic Fleet's fighter wing to head for the Navy's Office of Legislative Affairs in Washington.
He'd rather, he said, remain near his cats.
Known throughout the fighter community as an aggressive, almost flamboyant fighter jock and former ``Top Gun,'' Snodgrass has flown the F-14 since he was an ensign 24 years ago.
As the fleet's fighter boss, he has been responsible for 270 aircraft and 5,000 personnel serving in a dozen operational squadrons, as well as the Strike, Weapons and Tactics School.
But it was Snodgrass' recent success at acquiring the LANTIRN weapons system for the F-14 that earned him the most praise. The navigation and bombing system, developed and acquired during the two years Snodgrass has been in command, is a wing-mounted pod that enables the F-14 to steer a bomb precisely to its target.
First deployed last summer aboard the carrier Enterprise in flights over Bosnia, the system has been hailed by the Navy's brass as a phenomenal success and the most important boost to the Tomcat's potency since the aircraft first became operational in 1972.
The F-14, long the Navy's premier aerial dogfighter, is scheduled to leave the service in another 10 to 12 years, making way for F/A-18 ``Super Hornet'' models now under development.
With the Navy's A-6E Intruder medium attack bomber retiring next month, the LANTIRN-equipped F-14 has an important new mission as a precision strike bomber.
It will ``bridge the gap'' until the later models of the F/A-18 are ready for the fleet, said Vice Adm. John L. Mazach, commander of the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force.
``A few years ago there were tales of the F-14 being too big, underpowered, no role for it in the future, plagued with accidents and engine failure,'' Mazach said at the ceremony. ``Here, one year later, it has LANTIRN, night vision and digital flight controls . . . and Dale (Snodgrass) is the driving force behind it.''
Snodgrass sees the eventual transition of the F-14 community into the F/A-18 as an easy one.
``I think the community is really going in the right direction,'' he said. ``We are providing the right force at the right time to get us through until the next airplane starts up.''
Snodgrass has racked up more than 6,800 flight hours in jets, 4,700 of them in the F-14. He has 1,084 carrier-deck landings to his credit.
Still, he doesn't think he has had enough time in the cockpit. He said after the ceremony that he would like to get in another 1,000 hours of flight time.
His new job will not give him any flying time. However, he does own his own plane, a propeller driven model, that he plans to use.
Replacing him at Oceana is Capt. Thomas F. Enright, who for the past eight months commanded the Atlantic Fleet's counterpart on the West Coast, Fighter Wing Pacific Fleet.
Enright, a 1973 graduate of the Naval Academy, is a former surface warfare officer who was designated a naval flight officer in 1976. He previously served in Norfolk as executive assistant to the commander Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Capt. Thomas F. Enright, left, and Capt. Dale O. ``Snort'' Snodgrass
salute the colors at the change of command ceremony for the Atlantic
Fleet's fighter wing Thursday at Oceana.
Color file photo
The Plane
Snodgrass gets credit for equipping F-14's with the LANTIRN system,
which gives the jet additional capabilities.
KEYWORDS: CHANGE OF COMMAND