CVMA Nationals 2025 and Remembering Bob “Crash” Tibbetts

A few days after getting home from my TN-AL-MS-LA-MO-IL-IN-KY-WV-VA loop, I headed south towards Athens, GA.

CVMA Nationals

I’ve been a member of an organization called the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association (CVMA) since 2013. Full membership is made up of veterans from all branches of service who have deployed in association with combat operations, with Support and Auxiliary membership status for those without combat deployments and spouses, respectively. We have members in chapters across all 50 states, and numerous countries abroad. Several thousand members descend upon a different city each year for the National CVMA meeting; this year’s iteration was held in Athens, GA. As a non-profit organization focused on “veterans helping veterans,” CVMA sponsor and participate in many veteran-related motorcycle (and other) charity events each year, and donate to various veteran causes. (CVMA) In 2025 alone, the association has awarded $300,000 in scholarships to members and their families, is one of only nine designated charity partners for the current Harley-Davidson Let’s Ride Challenge, and has conducted numerous charity rides, raffles, and community outreach for veterans in local chapter areas.

Bob “Crash” Tibbetts

CVMA does a great job of bringing together veterans with common experiences (combat service and motorcycle riding) to do good for their communities and forge friendships. I’ve made lifelong friends and experienced some epic riding and events through this association. When gaining friends and memories over years, it is inevitable that there will be losses. Not just through the march of time, but also through the inherent danger of riding motorcycles. Lack of physical protection, relative instability of two-wheels, and constant exposure to the elements make this hobby/lifestyle extremely unforgiving to mistakes. Anyone who rides a motorcycle understands the risks, particularly those who have experiences that have hammered home the fact that we are never promised a tomorrow. Yet, we still ride and still forge friendships.

Which brings me to Bob “Crash” Tibbetts.

While on my long road trip in 2022, I met Top (now Passport) and Mongo in Michigan. We quickly hit it off, and the next year, I met up with them, and their friend Bob “Crash” Tibbetts, for a glorious week of riding in the Banner Elk, NC area. A few months later when I was passing through Cumberland Gap, KY, I remembered that he lived close to the area, so I texted him to see if he wanted to meet up to ride. He did, and I enjoyed several days of being led by him through some of his favorite backroads – great riding, good conversation, and sincere camaraderie.

I had catching up with Bob on my mind as I was packing my bike for Nationals when I saw a message come across our association forum that a CVMA member from a Kentucky chapter, road name Crash, had just been killed in a motorcycle accident on the way to Athens. I immediately texted Bob to check on him.

No response.

Soon, Passport and Mongo, who were with him at the time of the accident, confirmed that he had passed a few hours earlier.

A Navy veteran, Bob worked as a lineman for Bell Telephone in New Hampshire upon his return from Vietnam. He and his family later moved to Kentucky where he worked with Bell South (now AT&T) until he retired in 2008. We had more than military and motorcycles in common; my dad also served in the Navy, and retired from Bell South, where he too, started as a lineman. Bob was one of the most kind and humble people I’ve ever met. His love for his family, respect for service, and passion for helping veterans was evident in his every word and action. He was a calming joy to be around.

Some would say that it was fate that someone with the road name of “Crash” would perish in a motorcycle accident. I say, that at 77 years old, Bob went out doing what he loved, and made his final ride in the midst of brothers and sisters of an organization he was passionate about. What more can any of us hope for?