Before retirement Lee Buland was the Naval Aviation Enterprise Current Readiness Advisor to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Commanding General.  As the Advisor, he helped to develop Wing Strategic Readiness goals and translated those goals into Type Model Series readiness objectives and metrics.  He also authored the maintenance portion of the Commanding General’s Planning Guidance tool which included the Balanced Scorecard statistical analysis for each 2MAW TMS.  The Balanced Scorecard became the basis for the Focus Area chart to help drive resource and operational alignment for all 2MAW TMS aircraft.

In addition to the Naval Aviation Enterprise Advisor role, he also performed duties as an AV-8B Harrier simulator Instructor for the Fleet Replacement Squadron, VMAT-203.  This instruction included all phases of flight and ground school training in the Night Attack and Radar jets for replacement and refresher pilots.

His Staff assignments have included Assistant Program Manager, Naval Air Systems Command for the AV-8B, where he developed and helped execute plans for the introduction of the Radar/Night Attack aircraft to the Fleet.  He was also later assigned to the Joint Strike Fighter Program where he drove STOVL requirements development, systems integration and simulator development and training.

He was selected for a Joint Billet with the Royal Air Force as an Exchange Pilot flying the Jet Provost, Hawker Hunter, BAE Hawk, Tmk-4 and GR-3 Harrier.  He took part in NATO exercises throughout the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Canada.

He was selected for Command of Marine Attack Squadron 311 where the TOMCATS were chosen as the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing’s “Attack Squadron of the Year”.  He was selected for Command of Marine Attack Training Squadron 203 where he established contract maintenance teams and introduced the RR-408 engine to the TAV-8B aircraft. He was selected for Command of Marine Aircraft Group 13 where he guided the Air Group through a series of significant engine related groundings driving recovery efforts with Industry, NAVAIR and HQMC achieving far reaching improvements to engine production, maintenance and operational procedures.  He was selected for Command of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point where he drove requirements and resources to ensure adequate Air Station infrastructure to fully support the needs of the operational forces.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Technology from Southern Illinois University and Post Graduate studies from the Marine Corps Command & Staff College, Naval Post Graduate School, Defense Systems Management College and the Avraham Goldratt Institute.

Snake has flown over 6,300 mishap free flight hours including over 3600 in the Harrier and has qualified in 30 different aircraft.  He holds an ATP and is type rated in DC-9, B-737 and Citation.