HMM-265 Veterans Association History
The HMM-265 Veterans Association, Inc. has its roots in the actions of a small, loosely knit, and perhaps even more loosely wrapped, collection of some of the guys who had trained together for a year at New River, boarded USS Boxer at Norfolk in April, 1966, and served in Vietnam for 13 months. In 1988 Dave Boatwright, Dale Tinsley, and Bob Mills organized and conducted the first-ever HMM-265 reunion in Pensacola. Dave and Bob have returned to base but Bob said it never would have happened without Uncle Dave’s leadership.
Pre-2012 reunions are listed at ‘Archives|Past Reunions|Pre-2012 Reunions’ to the best of Bob Mills’ recollection. Anyone with a better memory than Bob (wouldn’t be too hard) is invited to chip in via the discussion board (you’ll need to join the website and then log in). Each reunion 2012 and beyond has its own listing at ‘Archives|Past Reunions’.
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. 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 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 conducts interim business via asynchronous virtual meetings (email). At each reunion the Board of Directors will elect new officers and poll the attendees in a non-binding vote on where to have the next reunion.
We are trying to fill in some of the blanks as to who did what, where, and when (officers, directors, reunion coordinators, movers and shakers, etc). Please look through the info at ‘Archives|Past Reunions” and then see the “Association History” topic on the discussion board and chime in with whatever you remember, or even think you might remember. Your comment will trigger other memories by other squadron mates, and thus is history reconstructed.