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Known as the father of the Armed Services Blood Bank Fellowship Program, Army Col. Frank R. Camp spent a large portion of his distinguished Army career teaching blood banking. He led the Army program in blood banking and transfusion research and his efforts helped support the large blood requirements of the Vietnam War. His published blood research included more than 200 manuscripts, scientific reports, book chapters and technical papers. Camp was the first non-physician to command the U.S. Army Medical Research Laboratory at Fort Knox, Ky. In 1984, the blood donor center at Fort Knox would be named after Camp to honor the man whose vision brought knowledge, understanding and lifesaving blood to so many. The Armed Services Blood Program posthumously honored Camp with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Spiker's illustrious military blood banking career is filled with a host of "firsts." In the early 1960s, he introduced the use of plastic bags for collections and initiated the use of red blood cells for both the U.S. military blood program in Korea and the blood donor center and hospital blood bank at Fort Campbell, Ky. Spiker established the first centralized blood program in the continental U.S. for the U.S. Army where he served as the first Army Health Services Command Laboratory and Blood Bank consultant. He ensured that all Army blood operations met Food and Drug Administration and AABB standards, and later served as the first Army-wide blood program officer making him the father of the Army Blood Program as it is today. Spiker was also the first blood banker to be the assistant chief of the Army Medical Service Corps for Allied Sciences.

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Berger was a pioneer in military blood banking for more than 30 years. He established blood transshipment centers which became critical to U.S. war plans during the Cold War. He later conducted the first joint American-British blood program readiness exercise, and set the stage to preposition 30,000 units of frozen blood for U.S. European contingencies at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm. U.S. Air Force Europe became the first command of the U.S. European military services to use frozen blood due to his initiatives in the frozen blood program, lessening critical wartime shortfalls. His involvement in contingency operations from the U.S. European Command to Operation Desert Storm was crucial especially in the early stages of the war.

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Retired Navy Cmdr. W. Patrick Monaghan, PhD's career spanned the globe, taking him from the United States, to South Vietnam, to areas throughout the Pacific. His achievements included providing clinical laboratory tests and blood bank support to wounded service members in Vietnam, setting up a robust military blood program at the Naval Hospital in Charleston, S.C., and serving as the director of the Navy Blood Program, Northeast Area Blood System. A tireless research scientist in his field, many of his clinical research projects through the years have resulted in procedures that are still used to save lives of military personnel worldwide today. Monaghan established the first military apheresis center and was instrumental in defining procedures to collect large volumes of blood and treat patients with blood disorders.

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Retired Navy Capt. C. Robert Valeri, PhD. currently holds the following academic appointments: Professor of Medicine and Research Professor of Surgery, Boston University School of Medicine; Professor of Medicine, Tufts Veterinary School; Lecturer in Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine. He has published over 520 peer-reviewed original articles, written four books and devoted himself to a lifetime of research in the area of frozen blood products. His outstanding work led to FDA Licensure of rejuvenated and non-rejuvenated frozen red blood cells, DMSO as platelet cryoprotectant; fresh frozen plasma stored for 7 years at –80 C; and most recently, deglycerolized red blood cells with a two week post-thaw shelf life. Today, the entire DoD frozen blood program a vital part of contingency operations all over the world is a direct result of his work and the transfusion of deglycerolized red cells has saved many lives.

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Retired Army Col. Anthony "Tony" J. Polk's lifetime of military blood banking experiences developed and shaped the Department of Defense blood program into the Armed Services Blood Program of today. Foundational elements and organizational structure of the program including the program name, titles of blood bank officers throughout the military blood banking system, and the standardization of distribution systems were conceptualized and implemented by this visionary military blood banker. Polk served as the Armed Services Blood Program director from 1984 to 1991, and authored the Military Blood Program 2004 Implementation Plan, which would mark the beginning of the military blood program's routine inclusion in all top-level contingency plans.