Here is another picture I found that I know Cudaman will get a kick out of ! The emblem at the front of the fender is barely visible. You can definitely see there are no leaves on the trees in the pictures so it would have to been taken between the late fall and early spring months. My dad graduated high school in 1965 and remembers he was still driving his 63 Pontiac at the time (summer 1965). I'm guessing these pictures were probably taken late fall 1965 to early spring 1966 which would have made him 18 at the time as he wouldn't have turned 19 until April 1966.
That pic, too, of your Dad’s car makes me even more believe that he replaced the “HP2”-enblem with the more discrete red/black&chrome “COMMANDO V8”-enblem.
Giveaway is the “red”. If that still were the factory “HP2”-badges, there would be no RED.
Here is a pic of a car with “HP2”enblems from a very identical front/driverside-angle: looks different to your Dad’s car => not the smallest trace or RED in the enblem.
