Lanny Snodgrass just wanted to serve his country. Little did the former Lawrence resident know he would end up — at age 63 — going through basic training after being accepted into the Army Reserves.

“I felt like a grandfather among grandchildren,” Snodgrass said during a recent interview. “It was a rigorous and tremendous experience for me.”

Snodgrass, a 1958 graduate of Lawrence High School, survived a 13-day officer training program a year ago at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio despite being required to do the same mental and physical exercises performed by his much younger comrades.

“It took me two weeks to understand the impact and the full meaning and be able to pronounce ‘hoo-ah,'” Snodgrass said. “I finally got it and felt like I was the part of the same esprit de corps. It all gave me a … perception and understanding of what soldiers have to go through.”

Snodgrass is now nearing the end of a short active duty period that began in November and will end sometime in February working at Irwin Army Community Hospital at Fort Riley. A psychiatrist and physician, Snodgrass works with soldiers — many of whom have been in Iraq — suffering anxiety, sleep disorders and possible post traumatic stress.

Snodgrass also tends to wives and other dependents of soldiers away from home if they come into the hospital seeking emergency care.

Care for stress disorders

Most soldiers will not suffer from war-related stress disorders for the rest of their lives, Snodgrass said. The key, however, is for the soldier to get help as soon as they experience problems.

“Over time, the human being does have a tremendous capacity for resilience to be able to resolve these kinds of stresses,” he said. “But we also know that with treatment and medication we can shorten the time of recovery tremendously.”

Lanny Snodgrass finally is getting a chance to serve his country. The 63-year-old psychiatrist went through basic training and now helps soldiers at Fort Riley deal with various psychological problems.

Snodgrass should know. He has worked more than 20 years with veterans as a civilian psychiatrist in California and Tacoma, Wash., where he lives and works for the American Lake VA Medical Center. He also is on the staff at the University of Washington-Tacoma as a clinical assistant professor and is on the teaching staff at Madigan Army Medical Center.

A 1963 graduate of Kansas University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, he later earned a doctorate at the University of Oregon. He worked on his dissertation on nonverbal communication and cross-cultural relations while working as a psychologist in Southeast Asia. In his late 30s he served medical internships at Kansas University and the Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka.

For several years Snodgrass led groups of doctors into China under medical exchange programs until the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. During the 1990-1991 Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations against Iraq, he signed on as a civilian to work for the military and was sent to a hospital in Nuremberg, Germany.

In 1997, Snodgrass added another line to his extensive resume by becoming the first American to address the Chinese Psychiatric Assn.

His second wife, Tong Shen, is a native of Shanghai, China. The couple met in New York. She was a surgeon in China and is now a medical intern at the University of Washington in Tacoma.

Love for music

When Snodgrass wants to unwind, he turns to the piano. He has been playing the piano much of his life. He put himself through medical school playing the piano. While he was in Nuremberg he played in a hotel.

“Music to me is like food,” he said. “It’s something to help me keep my psyche in balance. I can come home, sit down and play 35 or 40 minutes and I’m just totally relaxed. It’s like I go into an alternate state.”

Snodgrass credits his parents, who also were interested in music, for leading him to the piano. His father, Lloyd Snodgrass, and his mother, Ruth Freeland,are now in their 90s and still living in Lawrence. While stationed at Fort Riley he is able to check on them more often as well as visit other relatives and friends in the area, Snodgrass said.

Joining the Reserves

In July 2000, Snodgrass decided he wanted to join the Army Reserves. He noted there were only 50 psychiatrists in the entire Army at the time. He had never served in the military. After high school he tried to join the Air Force but was rejected because of a shoulder injury he suffered playing football at LHS.

“I thought that in order to somehow complete my purpose in life I had to do this,” Snodgrass said about joining the Reserves.

Snodgrass obtained a waiver to join despite his age but because of confusion in the Army about his status, it wasn’t until 2003 that he received a letter commissioning him as a major. Now he is a lieutenant colonel.

Longtime friend Bob Lockwood isn’t surprised at anything Snodgrass tries to accomplish, including joining the reserves at age 60.

“He seems to have a calling for certain things,” said Lockwood, who was a KU athlete and coach. “He’s worked a lot with veterans who needed help. He’s a beautiful pianist.”

Lockwood also stayed in touch with Snodgrass when his friend was going through basic training.

“We did talk a lot by phone about how tough that was on him,” Lockwood said.

Snodgrass’ obligation with the Reserves ends in 2008.

“By then I’ll be ready for a new challenge,” he said.