Courtesy Photo | Col. Jeremy Beaven, Marine Corps Base Hawaii Commanding Officer and Sgt. Maj. Adan...... read more read more
Mission Accomplished! The Tripler Army Medical Center Blood Donor Center accomplished the mission. The week of April 6-9, 2026 five (5) Armed Services Blood Program Donor Centers came together to host the inaugural Pacific Pulse Blood Drive in Oahu, HI. INDOPACOM charged the Tripler Blood Donor Center with the task of hosting a blood drive large enough to supply the blood requirements of the annual Balikatan training exercise. The Balikatan training exercise began in 1981 and served as the primary training between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United States Military. The joint training supports counterterrorism and joint operations and has grown to include Australia and Japan Military Forces to strengthen our alliances. In the past two years, the Balikatan exercise has included tens or thousands of troops in the training efforts. After months of planning and preparations it was go time. Blood Donor Center teams from across the Pacific joined forces to collect blood from our military to support our military. The team started at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham with two days of dedicated blood donors showing up to donate. As the teams blended and their processes became second nature, they were able to successfully welcome 232 donors to the blood drive. On to day three at Kaneohe Bay, the Marines were determined to surpass the efforts of JBPHH and showed up in force with 250 Marines registered to donate. As we closed out the week, mother nature decided to show up and showered Schofield Barracks with copious amounts of rain which resulted in an essential staffing order for the base. Despite this puddle in our plan, we had 81 blood donors register to donate. After a week of life saving collections, the Pacific Pulse Blood Drive came to an end. The success of this blood drive proved that together we can make a difference and save lives. MAJ Martinez, Chief of the Area Joint Blood Program – Hawaii and of Transfusion Medice Services at Tripler Army Medical Center shared, “The Pacific Pulse 2026 Blood Drive served as a readiness exercise as a coordinated effort to move blood throughout the AOR and was an absolute success. It highlighted the unprecedented ability of 5 military blood centers across the Indo-Pacific to rapidly scale up large blood donation collections on Oahu over 4 days across 3 locations. It was truly amazing to see the team operate effortlessly and flawlessly and in harmony, as if they had been doing this for years. The blood collected this week has already started to have impacts across the AOR with majority of it serving as the blood requirements for the Balikatan 2026 bilateral exercise which is currently underway in the Philippines. We hope to continue the Pacific Pulse blood drive campaign in the future and thank each of the over 500 donors who came out to support this event.”
This mission would not have been possible without the support from the Armed Services Blood Bank Center – Pacific NW (JBLM, WA), Armed Services Whole Blood Laboratory – West (Travis AFB, CA), Naval Hospital Guam Donor Center (Guam), Armed Services Blood Bank Center – Okinawa (Japan), and of course, Tripler Army Medical Blood Donor Center (Hawaii). The leaders of JBPHH, Kaneohe Bay, and Schofield Barracks also deserve grateful Thank you, without their support we would not have met the goals of the Pacific Pulse Blood Drive. To learn more about donating blood with the Armed Services Blood Program, visit: https://dha.mil/ASBP
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2026 16:32 |
| Story ID: | 563700 |
| Location: | HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 11 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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