National Commander Message

I want to thank Mike Little and the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans
Association Board of Directors for this opportunity. I look forward to
working with them.
The BWNVVA has been around for many years doing some very good work for
Blue Water Navy Veterans. I hope to continue to do this type of work and
help to bring the BWNVVA to be an even stronger group than it already is.
We need to be able stand up with other Veterans Organizations with our
heads held up high and continue the fight. We need to be able to go up to
any Member of Congress and when they hear we are from BWNVVA they will
respect us and be willing to work with us.
One thing I want to make clear. BWNVVA is working hard with Blue Water Navy
Vietnam Veterans, BWNVVA is not only for them but for all Navy Veterans,
Marine Veterans, and Fleet Marine Veterans, Active Duty Members, and all
other Veterans. We all can work together and help each others
What does this mean for the BWNVVA. It means in the next year I am going to
be busy. There is a lot of planning to do in setting the direction of the
BWNVVA, I need to define and fill some other position and I need to do this
while working on H.R. 299, S. 422, H.R.809 and any other Bills that we need
to work on.
For those of you on the Blue Water Navy Awareness Facebook page, you may
ask what does this mean for Blue Water Navy Awareness, I want to bring BWNA
and BWNVVA closer together so we are all working together. Both pages will
stay as they are. I would like to suggest that if you are on one but not
the other you may want to make sure you are signed up for both just in case
one has more information than the other.
For those who don’t know me. I will tell you a little about myself. I am a
Blue Water Navy Veterans. I served on the USS Bainbridge DLG(N)25 as a
Sonar Tech. I spent many years in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as
a Senior Test Engineer before being retired in 2012. In 2013 I was
diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and in 2014 I was diagnosed with Thyroid
Cancer. To top that off this year I have been diagnosed with Heart Problem,
receiving a stent a few months ago. I have had many people ask me how I can
keep a positive outlook while having these problems. I tell them two
things, first I have Cancer, Cancer doesn’t have me and second. I am too
busy with working on the Blue Water Navy Agent Orange issue to worry about
it. I let my doctors do the worrying and I listen to them.
If you have any questions or any ideas that are going to help us please
feel free to ask.
Mike Yates
​National Commander
Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association