Don Riggs is a retired Naval Aviator who does woodturning as a hobby. 
A little over half of his 31 ½ years in the Navy were spent at sea 
flying A-4 Skyhawks and F-4 Phantoms from numerous Aircraft Carriers 
all over the world. He was Commanding Officer of Fighter Squadron 142 
and the Wing Commander at NAS Corpus Christie. He made a total of 965 
Carrier landings of which 296 were at night and flew 97 Combat 
Missions in Viet Nam. He also spent 2 years as an Exchange Officer in 
the US Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base flying the F-105 Thunderchief.
Ashore he had numerous assignments in Personnel Management, attended the 
Navy Post Graduate School, the Army War College and the last 5 years he 
was at the Bureau of Naval Personnel where he was the Deputy of the 
Organization that had the responsibility of assigning all Officers and 
Enlisted Personnel in the Navy.

Don’s Woodturning began in 1986 when he saw some bowls another 
Woodturner was selling at the Henderson Hall Marine Corps Exchange. He 
did not really learn to turn, however, until he joined the Capital 
Area Woodturners (CAW) in 1994. He was a major player in the growth of 
the CAW from 40 to 250 members. He taught Woodturning for Fairfax 
County Adult Education Program for 5 years and along with another CAW 
member, held bi-monthly Skill Enhancement classes for members of CAW 
until he moved to the SML area in 2008. He has conducted Woodturning 
Demonstrations throughout Virginia at various Woodturning Clubs and 
was a Demonstrator at two of the Virginia Woodturning Symposiums He is 
a member of SML Woodturners, Blue Ridge Woodturners and Capital Area 
Woodturners. After being invited the second time to Demonstrate at the 
SML Club his wife liked the area and the decision was made to find a 
home in the Area. He has built a 30 X 40 shop where he has 4 lathes 
and there are very few days where one or more of them is not used to 
make shavings .

Directions to the Craft Center