BRIGADIER GENERAL CHARLES H. SNIDER
Retired
August 01,1971
Died January 28,1992
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Brigadier General Charles H. Snider is the U.S. Air Force assistant surgeon general for veterinary services. He provides professional assistance to the Air Force surgeon general on all veterinary matters and is responsible for the technical administration of the Veterinary Service.
General Snider was born in 1917, in East St. Louis, Ill. He received a doctorate of veterinary medicine degree in 1940 at Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kan., and under the Air Force Institute of Technology Program, attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Mich., and in 1951 earned a master's degree in public health. He entered active military service in December 1941, and performed duty as a veterinary officer in Chicago, Ill., and Oakland, Calif., until December 1943.
He then joined the 1699th Service Unit at St. Louis, Mo., as a meat and dairy products inspector. In May 1946 he returned to Chicago, Ill., where he accomplished veterinary inspection and staff work for the next four years. He transferred to the Air Force Veterinary Corps July 1, 1949. From September 1950 to July 1951 he attended the University of Michigan and then reported to Headquarters Fifteenth Air Force, Mather Air Force Base, Calif., to be veterinarian on the Surgeon's staff.
General Snider received an overseas assignment in December 1951 to Rabat, French Morocco, where he became staff veterinarian with Headquarters 5th Air Division and in July 1953 command veterinarian at Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force. He was responsible for formulating programs of preventive medicine, public health, and various disease control programs. An assignment to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., was next in August 1954. He became assistant chief, Professional Division, Veterinary Services, in the Office of the Air Force surgeon general.
Between June 1958 and August 1960, he was Air Force special project and liaison officer, Veterinary Division, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. During this period he assisted in developing and instructing Army/Air Force training programs for military veterinary medicine, laboratory animal medicine and preventive medicine. He was the Department of Defense project officer for preparing the section on military veterinary medicine for the Congressional Committee Print, "Veterinary Medical Service and Human Health."
In September 1960 General Snider began a tour of duty as command veterinarian with the Office of the Surgeon General, Headquarters Air Materiel Command (redesignated Headquarters Air Force Logistics Command), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
General Snider was appointed as assistant surgeon general for veterinary services in the Office of the Surgeon General, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, in October 1963.
General Snider is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association; District of Columbia Veterinary Medical Association; Association of Military Surgeons; Air Force Association; American Association of Equine Practitioners; Freemasons; Shriners; and Delta Omega, honorary public health fraternity. He is chairman of the House of Delegates Advisory Committee AVMA; and diplomate and past president of the American Board of Veterinary Public Health.
In 1970 General Snider was one of seven veterinarians to receive an honorary award at the 107th annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Public Service Award was given to him for "unusual contributions to the practice and science of public health and regulatory veterinary medicine."
His military decorations and awards include the Legion of Merit, and Air Force Commendation Medal.
He was promoted to the temporary grade of brigadier general effective March 15, 1968, with date of rank March 24, 1968.
(Current as of March 1, 1971)