Photo by Rick Thompson Command Master Chief Jeff Snowden receives a bronze eagle statuette from Commanding Officer Capt. Glen Ives during a farewell luncheon Monday as a memento of his three-year tour at Pax River. Looking on are Executive Officer Capt. Andrew Macyko, Snowden’s wife Matrona, and Executive Director Michael Quigley.

‘‘My wife was enjoying the pool one day when she started talking to a young lady who turned out to be Pat Johnson,” Snowden said. ‘‘She turned out to be the wife of Command Master Chief Joseph Johnson, and told Matrona that her husband was soon to retire and his relief hadn’t been named yet.”

Where was Johnson retiring from? Answer: Patuxent River, Maryland, which was particularly attractive to Snowden because he grew up in Bowie, Md. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

‘‘My orders to come here were written at that conference,” said CMDCM Snowden. ‘‘My wife found these orders.”

When he arrived at Pax River in July 2004, Snowden found himself in a more complex job than before. ‘‘On the McCain, we were basically a tenant at Naval Station Yokosuka, which was our home port. I was responsible for approximately 300 Sailors. I took care of them; that was my job.”

Snowden actually came to Pax River as command master chief for NAWCAD, but was soon shifted to the same position for the station. ‘‘From then on, I was dual-hatted as both the base and NAWCAD command master chief,” said Snowden. ‘‘My relief will not be dual-hatted. He will be base-only. There will be a separate CMC for NAWCAD.”

It’s made for a somewhat complicated life. Snowden isn’t the only command master chief at Pax River; there are three others — for NAVAIR, VX-1 and VX-23 — and some of the tenant commands operate as detachments from units outside Pax River. Those tenant commands have their own ‘‘collateral duty” CMCs.

And that doesn’t mention the various command and detachment commanders.

Snowden’s job itself, though, is straightforward. ‘‘The formal definition is that I’m responsible for advising the commanding officer on all issues dealing with enlisted personnel,” said Snowden. ‘‘Depending on the position you have, you may do more than that.”

He continued, ‘‘As the base CMC, I provide all the other tenant commands with guidance and information. I also take input on all the programs we have on base that support them.”

He used FFSC (Fleet and Family Support Center) as an example because it ‘‘directly impacts the morale of our Sailors and their families.” According to Snowden, ‘‘My responsibility here is to assure that FFSC’s people have what they need as they get feedback from the tenant commands regarding the needs of their Sailors,” Snowden stated. ‘‘I’ll provide information to the tenant commands as to what FFSC offers, and take their concerns back to FFSC. What kind of support do the families and Sailors need? Should we have more courses and training, or different types of programs?”

A new experience for Snowden was extensive dealings with civilians. One Vietnam veteran called to complain about a ‘‘Hanoi Jane” movie at the station theater. ‘‘I was caught offguard that somebody would call me to complain about the movies they’re showing at the theater, and didn’t realize at first that he was talking about Jane Fonda,” he said. ‘‘I had a nice conversation with him, and it turned out he didn’t know that she had apologized.”

According to Snowden, ‘‘I had never worked as closely with civilians before, and I’ve learned a great deal about how to deal with people, and how things are done in the civilian world. Before, my dealings with civilians were mainly, when do our repairs get done or when are supplies delivered. It’s a lot more now, and I really did not have a sense going in of how much I would be working with civilians.”

Civilians operate under a different set of rules. ‘‘As much as I may want to tell the civilians to go home early on a Friday, I can’t. There’s a 59-minute rule,” Snowden said. ‘‘I can tell an enlisted man to take off half a day if that’s the case.”

The reason is the different rules. ‘‘You can work Sailors late into the evening, where you couldn’t do that with civilians unless you’re paying them overtime, so when you have the chance to make up the time with Sailors, you can go ahead and give it to them,” he stated. ‘‘You may have worked them 12 hours a day, where you can’t work civilians 12 hours a day.”

At Pax River, Snowden has also strengthened his team-building skills, ‘‘because I had to do a lot of that on the base side of my job. Each command has its own chain of command, but they all live here on the base. It was all about conveying to all the senior enlisted that this is in the best interest of our base. I couldn’t order them to do any of it, and in many cases neither could Capt. Ives.”

Sailors from the tenant commands had to stand gate watches, ‘‘which was not a very popular decision,” said Snowden, ‘‘and the enlisted from all the commands had to work out how we were going to do it effectively.”

The best part of the job: ‘‘Seeing folks advance. That’s always a very enjoyable time — to see us advance new leadership.”

Working with the community has also been a plus. ‘‘A lot of the time I physically didn’t go out and do those things, but I was able to set up the volunteers, get a coordinator, go to the different meetings outside the gate to see what the needs are, and get Sailors organized to help the community,” said Snowden.

One of the more difficult challenges has been regionalization. ‘‘When I reported on station, we were one year into it,” he stated. ‘‘We were trying to get it set up.” One change made at Snowden’s suggestion was rotating the required meetings: ‘‘Instead of having them all at the Navy Yard, we were able to visit the other installations in our region.”

A bonus benefit from the rotation was that ‘‘I could see how things are done at the other installations,” he said. ‘‘I brought back some excellent ideas from them, and we could share our methods when people came here.”

With the end of his time at Pax River in sight, Snowden says he is ‘‘having a blast. This has been a very good tour.” How good? ‘‘When you select orders, your window opens nine months before your planned rotation. I was having so much fun I missed that window. One of the retired master chiefs told me one day that he’d met my relief, and asked where I was going. My mouth dropped wide open because I’d totally missed it. I called my detailer that afternoon.”

Snowden’s next stop will be as command master chief for NAVSEA, which is sort of a homecoming for him. ‘‘Most of my time has been spent at sea on ships,” said Snowden. ‘‘I joined the Navy to see the world, and I’ve been to more places than I can remember. I’ve seen the world doing 19 of my 26 years on grey hulls.”

He will still be on the move, still doing the CMC job, now advising Vice Adm. Paul E. Sullivan on ‘‘all issues dealing with enlisted personnel.” Said Snowden, ‘‘I will be responsible for the Sailors that go into the shipyards — not directly, but I will have oversight to be sure they have all the things they need.” He continued, ‘‘I’ll be dealing with something even more diverse than Pax River with its various commands and detachments. I will be all over the country — Mobile, Maine, Bremerton, San Diego and more. They won’t be coming to me; I’ll go to them.”

His NAVSEA tour will in all likelihood be his last. Snowden, 45, recently re-enlisted, and when that enlistment ends in September 2010, he will be a 30-year man and plans to retire.

What next? ‘‘If I had my way and money wasn’t an issue, I would sell high-end audio equipment and install home theaters,” he said. ‘‘I don’t want to own a business. I’ll install home theaters, and between installations I’ll sell equipment in the store. I’ll be a happy camper. That’s my dream job.”

Of course, there might be a problem: ‘‘I’m one of those Sailors who, when they retire, miss this a lot. When you do this much time in the Navy, it’s hard when it’s time to go. I will definitely miss this.”

And something else: ‘‘My wife says that I would spend my paycheck in the home theater store. But I still have my retirement!”

As Snowden leaves Pax River, he attributes a big chunk of his success to his fellow chief petty officers. ‘‘Jeff Snowden didn’t say, do this or do that; all Jeff Snowden said was, let’s see if we can make this happen,” he stated. ‘‘They said, let’s make it happen. There’s no way I could have done this job without the support of these chiefs on this station. They’re some of the best chief petty officers I’ve seen in the Navy.”

Snowden’s successor will be CMDCM John Stigler, who will relieve him on July 2. Stigler will, in a way, be keeping it all in the family. Snowden’s predecessor came to Pax River from the USS Arleigh Burke, and the USS John S. McCain is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

And Stigler? He comes to Pax River from . . . The USS Arleigh Burke.