Sergeant First Class David F. Snyder / United States Army

David was born in Staten Island, N.Y., into a military family, the youngest of five children. David Snyder was no stranger to living in different places, and his father was a career Army man. Six weeks after his birth, the Snyder family moved to Germany. They lived for the next several years in Mannheim in a house that was said to have been occupied by a high-ranking officer during WWII. The house even had an Oma and Opa (German for grandma and grandpa). They helped care for the children and the grounds. They came with the house, the way a caretaker may come with an estate. Snyder’s father, at the time, was a Major in the US Army. After a career of 28 years, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. With his retirement in 1957.

The family moved to Nashua, settling on Blossom St. on Nashua’s west side. Snyder attended Nashua schools, graduating from Nashua High on Elm St. in the 1970 class. His wife Conney noted, “He liked school and did well. He was one of those kids who never had to study but got good grades. He was a friend to all.”

Right out of high school, Snyder secured a job at Sanders Associates in Nashua. His father was the head of security there and was able to get David a top security clearance to work with sensitive information on government contracts. However, the job didn’t last long. Snyder didn’t care for the working environment and so enlisted in the US Army in June 1970.

Snyder attended boot camp at Fort Dix, Lakehurst, NJ. Because of the high-level security clearance that he already had, he was stationed at the Pentagon, where he spent the next three years working in IT (Information Technology). Conney commented, “When he wasn’t working on computers, he was a chauffeur for military and political officials at the Pentagon.”

When his three-year military stint was up, Snyder left the Army. He went to Florida to live with his sister and tried to figure out what to do with his life. It took about six months to come to a decision – and he returned to the US Army. He told his recruiter he wanted to go to Germany. Luckily for Snyder, the US Army in Germany needed someone with computer and IT skills who had a top security clearance. So, he went off to Germany.

Conney remembered the stories he told, “Dave grew up in NH and never learned to ski. But what better place to learn than in the Alps in Europe? He traveled all over, Belgium, France, England, Spain, Amsterdam – … he saw it all and had a great time. Next to traveling, his favorite activity was going on a ‘Volksmarsch, ’ German for ‘people march.’”

Near the end of his Germany tour, Snyder and a friend were looking for their next duty station. They wanted something foreign and a little more exotic than Germany. Conney describes what happened next: “Dave and his buddy saw a posting for military jobs open in Yakima. They thought it was pronounced Ya-KEE-ma and that they would be going to a duty station in Japan… so they signed up for it. Much to their chagrin, their next duty station was in Yakima (YA-ki-ma) in Washington state in the good old USA! Dave, once again, was doing top security work.”

After his stint in Yakima, Snyder’s next assignment, oddly, had nothing to do with computers, IT, or top-secret information. He was became an Army recruiter. After finishing recruiter training, he was assigned to the Tri-City, Washington station. The Tri-Cities region is comprised of the cities of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland. It was just as well that Snyder did not go to Ya-KEE-ma, Japan, because it was during his tour as a recruiter that he met his future wife, Conney. She commented, “It was an unusual way of joining the Army, but I was up for it.” We met on Labor Day,1983, and got married on Memorial Day weekend, 1984.

Snyder did a good job recruiting, becoming “Rookie Recruiter of the Year.” He then took over the recruiting station in Oak Harbor, Washington, on Whidbey Island, from October 1984 to September 1985. Then, he became the station commander in Marysville, Washington from September 1985 to December 1986. After 3 years of recruiting, it was time for a change of scenery – so the orders arrived, it would be back to Germany.

Before going back “across the pond” again, Snyder and his wife, Conney, decided they would take some time off and drive across the United States back to NH. On the way, they would visit some of Conney’s relatives. Conney already had two children from a prior marriage, and Snyder adopted them in 1986. Then, shortly before leaving on their cross-country trip, she discovered she was pregnant.

In January 1987, Snyder left for Germany. Since he was not sure about finding housing for his wife, two kids, and one more on the way, he left Conney and the children in Nashua until he could find a place for all of them. Fortunately, he quickly found a place (in May) in Landstuhl, Germany, near Ramstein Air Base and the Landstuhl hospital, and invited his wife and children to come over right away. So, a very pregnant Conney Snyder and her children arrived in Germany. By July, Snyder’s third child was born. Once again, Snyder was working in the IT field. At the 7th D.P.U. In Kaiserslautern, West Germany.

Because he had already been all over Europe and enjoyed the sightseeing and the culture, Snyder wanted to share this with Conney so she could enjoy it as well. Conney remembered that, “It was a nice thought, but there was no way I was going to run all over Europe with three kids in tow. So, he promised we would come back at a later date. For three years, we went on only local adventures, including an occasional stroll to the Berg Nanstein castle.”

Author’s Note: Nanstein Castle is a ruined medieval castle above the town of Landstuhl, Germany, which has been partially reconstructed. Built in 1152, the red sandstone rock castle was once owned by Franz von Sickingen, who was mortally wounded during a siege of the castle in 1523.

On Sunday, August 28, 1988, Snyder took his two oldest children to the Ramstein Air Base, which was close to their home, to see the air show. They hadn’t been there very long before one of his children didn’t feel well, so they returned home. A short time after, three aircraft of the Italian Air Force display team collided during their display, crashing to the ground in front of a crowd of about 300,000 people. There were 70 fatalities (67 spectators and 3 pilots), and 346 spectators sustained serious injuries in the resulting explosion and fire. Snyder and his children, safely missed all of that.

Snyder’s time in Germany was coming to a close. He was offered another job and a promotion. He would have made E-8, meaning higher rank and higher pay. The bad news was, his duty station would be in Korea – and he would have to go without his wife and family. Snyder didn’t want to do an unaccompanied tour… subsequently, he requested his retirement.

For the last duty station of his military career, he requested to be stationed near NH, to be close his family… on the east coast. Or, Fort Lewis in Washington state, to be near Conney’s family… on the west coast. In their infinite wisdom, the US Army put them smack in the middle of the country, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. Snyder was back in the recruiting game, but this time, he was managing computer records for the recruiting process.

Snyder left the Army in July 1992, leaving Illinois for Washington. Conney had secured a transfer for her job, so it was just a matter of finding their new home. The Snyder family purchased a house in Lacey, WA, where they spent the next 13 years raising their family. Upon retiring, Snyder worked for Georgia Pacific for a short period of time before he was able to secure a job with the State of Washington / Department of Information Services, where he worked for the next 23 years.

Snyder retired from his state job in April 2016. At that time, his health started to deteriorate. He knew he didn’t feel right, but the doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong. Finally, on December 26, 2018 (2½ years later), he received his diagnosis – it was ALS.

Author’s Note: Wikipedia describes ALS: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells (motor neurons) in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is a fatal disease. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 2-5 years, but some people may live for longer.

January 2019 found Snyder in the ICU unit of their local hospital. Fortunately, they had a doctor who was very familiar with ALS. And he became an advocate for Snyder. He advised them that the Veteran’s Administration (VA) was familiar with ALS and it was somehow linked to military service. He said a high percentage of former military personnel contracted ALS and urged Snyder to seek treatment at a VA hospital. The closest VA hospital to their present home was about two hours away. The Snyders then decided to move to Phoenix, AZ, where they would be close to their now-adult children and a 20-minute drive to the local VA hospital.

In Phoenix, Snyder bought a house that was customized by the Veteran’s Administration to accommodate the disabilities that would soon beset him with wider doors and smooth (non-carpeted) floors to allow a wheelchair to roll freely.

And then – the COVID pandemic hit, and the world shut down, making life hard for everyone. Businesses closed, some for good. There was no close personal contact in public. People were urged to stay six feet away from each other. Any place where people congregated, such as movie theaters and church services, were suspended. One of the most important activities that was suspended was hospital visitations by friends and family members.

Sergeant First Class David Snyder lost the ability to breathe on May 21st, 2000. CPR was started, and medical services were called. Conney Snyder had to stand by and watch an ambulance take her husband away. Pandemic protocols would not allow her to ride in the ambulance or be with him in the hospital. After a couple of hours, she was informed that he had passed. She and the family were able to see him before cremation.

In 2022, with the pandemic abating, Conney Snyder had a memorial service for her husband in Olympia, Washington. He was cremated in his dress-blue Army uniform, and his ashes were spread over a place he loved, White Pass, Washington. Conney now lives with her daughter in Tempe, AZ.