Brief History of the Naval Minewarfare Association 

and 

Our Mission

The Naval Minewarfare Association was founded on December 5, 1982, in San Antonio, Texas, during the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association convention. Sixty-six sailors from 14 of the 24 minecraft at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, held their own mini-reunion for the purpose of establishing a minecraft organization that would hold its own reunions and stay in touch through a "newsletter." Before the meeting was over the group adopted the recommendation that the new group should encompass the entire spectrum of naval mine warfare and its personnel and not just the seagoing members of the naval mine warfare community. Many of the charter members were from the Oglala (CM 4), flagship of Mine Squadron One, which was damaged and sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The other ships represented at this reunion were the Breese, Boggs, Gamble, Montgomery, Perry, Preble, Pruitt, Rail, Ramsay, Tracy, Trover, Wasmuth, and Zane.

The NMA is a nationally recognized organization that today has about 1700 active members. Our membership consists of those men who served, or now serve, on one or more of the more than 700 ships and stations relating to mine warfare during the time frame of World War II and up to the present. They share one trait - they served, or now serve, their nation through some connection with sea mines. We welcome to membership all U.S. Navy and other Armed Forces members who served, or are now serving, in some facet of mine warfare utilizing naval mines. An Associate Membership is also offered to the families of our shipmates and to those persons with an interest in naval mine warfare.

The NMA publishes a quarterly newsletter - The Silent Defenders, which in part keeps members updated on convention plans. Our annual convention is held in a different part of the continental U.S., which is roughly divided into three areas. Conventions began in 1983. For example, we met at Fort Mitchell in Northern Kentucky in 1998; San Antonio, TX, in 1999; San Jose, CA, in 2000; Buffalo, NY, in 2001; Denver, CO, in 2002; San Diego, CA, in 2003; Mobile, AL, in 2004; St Louis, MO, in 2005; and Seattle, WA, in 2006. We meet in Chattanooga, TN, in 2007.

The NMA thus represents a special group minecraft sailors may join. Even though our DMs and DMSs had been converted from destroyers, their crews did not consider themselves to be Tin-Can sailors. The many AM, YMS, AMc, AMS, and MSO sailors also had nothing to join, and the small size of all crews compounded the problem of getting together for a reunion of the kind we now enjoy as members of the Naval Minewarfare Association. (Updated January 2007).

 Additional information may be obtained by contacting Joe Schreiber, Jr.