Ira Snyder entered the University of Illinois in September, 1925, graduating with the class of 1929 with a B. S. degree. He had won a letter on the baseball diamond at Illinois, and had made the trip to Japan in 1928 with that team. After graduation he was employed by Otto Randolph Inc., a Chicago firm, as an assistant superintendent of construction and later as a field engineer.

Ira always wanted to fly, and he was delighted when he received his appointment as a flying cadet in February, 1931, and entered training at March Field, California. He graduated from the Air Corps Advanced Flying School as a rated pilot, and in February, 1932, he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve. One month later, he was assigned to active duty with the Eighth Pursuit Group at Langley Field, Virginia. Because of the national economy drive then in effect his active duty was limited to one year, and he then returned to civilian life to become a partner in a hardware business at Barstow, California.

In 1939 he took a leave of absence from his business to enter the Air Corps expansion program as a flight instructor at Santa Maria, California. He was recalled to active duty in March of 1941 as a captain, and the years 1942, 1943 and 1944 saw him promoted through the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel to that of a full colonel. After the war he became a career soldier and was integrated into the regular Air Force, and by December, 1946 he had become commander of the Iceland Base Command. There the Iceland Government gave him their highest award, Knight Commander of the Falcon, for "giving such assistance as to avert a national economic disaster during the winter of 1947." Completing that assignment, Snyder was ordered to Newfoundland where he assumed command of the Pepperrell Air Force Base.

He was graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D. C., in June, 1950, and was then assigned to the Headquarters of the Tactical Air Command at Langley Field, Virginia as Deputy Chief of Staff, Materiel. His advance in rank to brigadier general was approved December 3, 1952, and at our last report he was still on duty at Langley Air Force Base.

David A. Strother was the first Negro in the United States to cast ballot as a result of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and this historic event occurred in an El Paso city election.

In those days, El Paso operated under a special charter of the legislature, which had been approved by Governor Oglesby in 1867. Article XV of the United States Constitution was declared in effect March 30, 1870, and stated that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

March 30, 1870 was on a Wednesday, and the following Monday, April 4, 1870, was El Paso's city election under its special charter,

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