Remembering Dale “Snort” Snodgrass
Captain Dale “Snort” Snodgrass, 1949-2021
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum • Posted on Aug 28, 2021
At the end of his 2011 Vice Adm. Donald D. Engen Flight Jacket Night presentation at the Museum, retired Navy Captain and warbird pilot Dale “Snort” Snodgrass exclaimed: “Livin’ the dream! I can’t believe I’m still doing it. Thirty-six years flying fighters!” And he didn’t stop there as he went on to help found and become chief pilot for Draken International, one of the largest adversarial training contractors for the United States military. Retiring from Draken, he began assembling his own Snort Air Force. Sadly, his dream came to an end on July 24, 2021, and one of the most highly regarded military pilots departed this airspace.
Livin’ the dream! I can’t believe I’m still doing it. Thirty-six years flying fighters!
Dale “Snort” Snodgrass – 717 Aviation
We said goodbye to Snort on Friday.
It was a beautiful ceremony for a truly wonderful man. He was a man among men. Many referred to him as a fighter pilot’s fighter pilot. While most called him Snort, I called him Dale. I loved this man far more than his persona.
Yes, he was as good, kind and humble as he appeared to be.
Today, as he was laid to rest, Snort didn’t allow it to be easy. Many of us were convinced he was there and doing what he loved to do. He challenged everyone to be their very best.
He toyed with his dearest friends flying the Missing Man with the worst weather imaginable. It poured from the heavens. Through most of the ceremony lightning bolts were striking the ground. Thunder clapped. There was even a distinctive cloud in the image of a jet. I expect it was an F14.
These are images a friend, Dave Tremblay, took at the Fort Stanton Veterans Cemetery in New Mexico. It is a beautiful place and where he had asked to be laid to rest.
It was all done as he asked it to be. Many will miss him but none more that I.
Cynthia
Remembering legendary pilot Dale Snodgrass killed in a plane crash at Lewiston airport
by JORDAN SMITH • Tuesday, July 27th 2021 • KLEW TV
LEWISTON, ID — A plane crash took the life of a retired U.S. Navy pilot, Dale Snodgrass, on Saturday afternoon just off the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport runway. Captain Snodgrass was in the aircraft alone.
Captain Dale Snodgrass was famously known in the aviation community and was a monumental figure, particularly when it came to flying the F-14.
In a decorated career, Dale ‘Snort’ Snodgrass was more than just a pilot, he was a celebrity with a witty sense of humor.
1978 Snodgrass attended Top Gun, the well-known Navy Fighter Weapon School where he mastered the F-14, and in 1985 he was awarded the Navy’s “Fighter Pilot of the Year.”
Tributes pour in for flying legend Dale ‘Snort’ Snodgrass after fatal crash Saturday at Lewiston airport
UPDATED: Sun., July 25, 2021 • By Joel Mills • The Lewiston Tribune
Tributes began pouring in from around the globe Sunday for Capt. Dale “Snort” Snodgrass, the legendary U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot who died in a single-engine airplane crash Saturday at the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport.
Retired Navy Captain and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly called Snodgrass a “true legend” in a Twitter post.
“I had the pleasure of knowing him and even flying with him in an F-14 with a new flight control system with me in the backseat, which felt oddly appropriate,” Kelly wrote.
Recognition and respect also came from the U.S. Naval Institute, the International Council of Air Shows and countless other organizations and individuals Snodgrass’s life touched. Snodgrass was a frequent participant in air shows after his retirement from active duty, pleasing crowds worldwide with his flying skills.