Welcome to the Home Page of HMM/VMM-265 Veterans Association

History and Purpose. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265 (HMM-265) was formed in 1962 at MCAS New River with Sikorsky’s UH-34D. In 1964 it received the first delivery of Boeing-Vertol’s new CH-46A helicopter. The squadron was deactivated on November 13, 1970. On 1 September 1977, HMM-265 was reactivated at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, re-establishing a presence in the Pacific that continues to this day. It served our country “in many a clime and place” as HMM-265 until it was re-designated as Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 (VMM-265) in 2012 as it transitioned to the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey. For more details see http://hmm-265.org/category/squadron-history/.

This Association exists to conduct reunions of those who served their country in or with HMM/VMM-265; to remember and honor their names and service, both living and RTB; and to help preserve the history of HMM/VMM-265. Please join us, then come and share your memories, real or imagined, with your old friends and comrades. There are three types of memberships, and all are free.

Regular Membership. Regular membership in the Association is open to any military service member or veteran who has ever served honorably in or with HMM-265. To apply for membership select ‘Admin|Join Us’, submit the form, and our membership officer will review your application. Upon approval, you will be notified and added to the roster.

Social Membership. Social membership is open to to those spouses, children, parents, and siblings of deceased persons who were members, or who were qualified for membership, who desire to establish or maintain contact with friends and associates of their deceased loved one, receive Association notices, or attend Association reunions. Social memberships are awarded automatically to surviving spouses of regular members upon notification of the member’s passing. Others may apply for social membership by selecting ‘Admin|Join Us’ and submitting the form. Use the Comment section to explain that you are applying for social membership and the circumstances. Our membership officer will review your application. Upon approval, you will be notified and added to the roster. Social members may not vote or hold office.

Associate Membership. Associate membership may be granted by the Board of Directors to those persons who do not meet the requirements for Regular or Social membership but nevertheless have contributed significantly to the preservation of the history of HMM/VMM-265 or have advanced the specific purposes of the Association; e.g., Tech Reps. Associate members may not vote or hold office.

Legal Status and Governance. The Association was registered and incorporated under the Laws of the State of Texas as a 501.c(3) tax-exempt veterans organization on 23 October 2006. Its address for official corporate matters is 2305 Royal Oaks Drive, Mansfield, Texas 76063. All of the legal and governance documents are posted at ‘Admin|Corporate Documents’. Consult the tax law and regulations or your tax professional about the deductibility of gifts to the Association. Our regular corporate meetings take place during the Association’s bi-annual reunions. Governance authority is vested entirely with the Board of Directors due to the difficulties inherent in direct participation by the members of an organization as far-flung and loosely-knit as ours. The Board of Directors may conduct interim business via conference call or other electronic means. At each reunion the Board of Directors will elect or re-elect officers and poll the attendees in a non-binding vote on where to have the next reunion.

Website Access. Most material on the site is in the public area and we expect it to stay that way; no login is required to view this material. We invite everyone to just wander through the menus and see what is there. In January 2018 we added a new ‘Members’ feature. To access this feature you must first complete and submit the membership application. After you receive an acceptance notification email you can use ‘Members|Register’ to get access to the members-only feature, which includes a moderated discussion board. When you register, the system will create a member profile for you where you can post as much or as little about yourself as you wish. We encourage you to share a bit of your life since your time in HMM/VMM-265; after all, the whole purpose of the Association is to reconnect with old comrades. Anyone can view your photos and bio, but you can always go back and edit, replace, or even delete, any or all of it.

Membership Roster There is a cut-down version of the HMM/VMM-265 Veterans Association master spreadsheet of members’ information available in the “Members Only” section. It provides a way for logged-in members to try to contact someone on the list indirectly via the Webmaster.

Sales and donations. When we learn of the passing on (RTB) of a member we send flowers or follow any other arrangements the family may have been requested if there is time. This is the Association’s primary expense, since reunions are self-funding, and is where a donation to the organization would be spent. Help us keep honoring our fallen comrades by making a tax-deductible donation. Please send your contribution to: Treasurer, HMM-265 Veterans Association, Inc., at 12097 SE 175 Loop, Summerfield, FL 34491, or add it to your next reunion or memorabilia purchase check.

Posting links on the website. The Association will post on its website only those links that further the Association’s purposes as enumerated in Article Seven of the Association’s Certification of Formation or approved in accordance with the Association’s governance procedures. We will not knowingly post links to entities with any kind of profit orientation, no matter how indirect or tenuous. (Don’t even ask; we will simply mark it as “Junk” and block the domain.) We also will not knowingly post links to web sites or pages that are personal, political, racist, fascist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, genderphobic, misogynistic, jingoistic, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi, inflammatory, pornographic, obscene, or extravagantly stupid. Again, we will simply mark the request as “Junk” and block the domain. We try to screen the material on the directly-linked pages, but cannot vouch for the other links that may be found on those pages and beyond. If you think we need to add or remove something please contact us at webmaster@hmm-265.org.

Contact. If you have a suggestion or anything else to communicate (personal information update, RTB report, error correction, website change, etc.) please contact us at webmaster@hmm-265.org.

Privacy Policy. We collect information only on members and membership applicants, which we use only in the pursuit of our tax-exempt purpose. We collect no information on visitors beyond what the technology requires for things like spam detection and monitoring. Further details are provided on a separate Privacy Policy page. Please contact us at webmaster@hmm-265.org with any questions.

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