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 one of the following officers
