Privacy Policy

Who We Are

The 25th Infantry Division Association ("TLA," "we," "us") operates tropiclightningassociation.com. We are a veterans association serving those who served with the 25th Infantry Division and their families. You can reach us through our contact page.

Information We Collect

Newsletter signups

When you subscribe to news and updates we collect your email address, your name if you choose to provide it, and the network (IP) address the signup came from, which we use only to protect the form from abuse.

Tribute submissions

When you leave a tribute on the memorial wall we collect the tribute message, your name as you wish it displayed, and optionally your email address. If you provide your email, we use it to notify you when your tribute is approved and, with your consent, when others honor the same soldier. Approved tributes are displayed publicly with your name and message.

"Submit a Name" submissions

When you submit a fallen service member's name for the memorial roster we collect the information and any files you choose to share (stories, photographs, service documents), along with your name, email address, and relationship to the service member. These submissions are delivered by email to Association volunteers for review and are not published without review. Please redact Social Security numbers from any document before submitting it.

Contact form

Messages sent through the contact form include your name, email address, and message text, and are delivered to the Association by email so we can respond.

Donations, memberships, and purchases

Donations and membership dues are processed by Zeffy, and merchandise purchases are processed by Shopify. Your payment card details are collected and processed by those services, not by this website, under their own privacy policies. We receive the information needed to administer your donation or membership, such as your name, contact information, and the amount.

Cookies

This site sets a small number of first-party cookies for convenience, none of which are used for advertising or cross-site tracking:

• tla_intro - remembers that you have seen the opening animation so it doesn't replay (expires after 1 day)
• tla_newsletter_seen - remembers that you dismissed the newsletter invitation (expires after 30 days)
• tla_tribute - supports the one-tribute-per-week limit on the memorial wall (expires after 7 days)

Embedded content from third parties, such as YouTube videos and the Zeffy donation form, may set their own cookies under those providers' policies.

How We Use Information

We use the information above to operate the memorial wall and rosters, send the updates you asked for, respond to your messages, administer donations and memberships, and protect the site from abuse. We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not use advertising trackers.

Service Providers

We rely on a small number of service providers to run this site. Each receives only what it needs to do its job:

• Vercel - hosts the website and its server functions
• Supabase - stores tribute submissions, the memorial brick registry, and newsletter subscriptions
• Resend - delivers transactional email such as confirmations and moderation notices
• Zeffy - processes donations and membership dues
• Shopify - processes merchandise purchases
• YouTube - serves embedded videos on our media pages

Retention

Approved tributes and memorial roster information are retained as a lasting part of the memorial. Newsletter records are kept until you unsubscribe, after which the record is marked unsubscribed and no further mail is sent. Signup IP addresses and unpublished submissions are kept only as long as needed for review and abuse prevention.

Your Choices

• Every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect immediately.
• You may ask us to correct or remove a tribute, a submitted name, or any personal information you provided by using the contact page. Family requests regarding a memorialized service member are honored wherever possible.

Children

This site is intended for a general audience and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Scholarship applicants under 18 must have a parent or guardian involved in their application.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. Meaningful changes will be noted in our newsletter or on the site.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your information can be sent through our contact page.