Bob Wonsley, USSVI National Secretary, and Tudor Davis, Past Commander of US Sub Vets WWII, had a dream of starting a United States Submarine Veterans base in Portland, OR. Bob and Tudor contacted all the Submariners they could find and organizational meetings were held at the NCO club at the Portland Air National Guard Base. The first official meeting to form the Base was on 9 December 1992.

Our founding E-board consisted of Commander, LeRoy Vick; Vice Commander, Rudy Valencia; and Secretary/Treasurer, Dave Hosford. This interim E-board remained in place until we received our Charter from USSVI. Bob Walters volunteered to publish our newsletter “Venting Sanitary” to keep our membership aware of Base activities.

United States Submarine Veterans Inc. issued Blueback Base our National Charter on 1 June 1993.
We are the 18^th Base chartered by USSVI.

Scheduling problems with the Guard base caused Blueback Base to move to the Portland Police Athletic Assoc.(PPAA). As membership grew, it was decided to move to our current location at the VFW hall in SE Portland.

During our existence, Blueback Base has participated in Veterans Day parades in Albany, OR; Veterans Day parades in Vancouver, WA; and the 4^th of July General Canby Day’s parades in Canby, OR. Our Base also provided volunteer services for fund raisers at the Oregon Public Broadcasting television studios.

Since being chartered, Blueback Base has sponsored Memorial Day ceremonies at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the USS Blueback. We have also assisted in two "B-girl" Reunions for the USS Barbel, USS Blueback, and USS Bonefish that took place in Portland, OR.

Blueback Base hosted the USSVI National Convention in August of 1996. Our own Base member Bob Wonsley was elected as National Commander of USSVI at this convention.