The most untapped,
most diverse donor pool
in America wears a uniform.
Every year ~3,000 Americans die because no one in the registry matches them — and the odds are worst for patients who aren't white. The fix is simple: more young, healthy, diverse donors. That's the Army. Operation Ring the Bell already proved it. This is what scaling it looks like.
Registration totals are Operation Ring the Bell program reporting (2022–2026). The Fort Bliss drive (Aug. 5–16, 2024), the 1-in-430 odds, and the annual diagnosis figure are from U.S. Army public affairs and Salute to Life.
A 30-year gap. A 10-minute fix.
Bone-marrow transplant is the preferred treatment for 50+ fatal blood cancers and disorders. Most patients can't find a match in their own family — they need a stranger in the national database. Salute to Life, the DoD's own program, has existed since 1991 and is severely underused: the Army was the lowest-contributing branch, averaging ~1,000 registrations a year.
ORTB's ask isn't a new program or a line of funding. It's a registry brief and a swab, built into training the Army already runs — and that alone takes the Army from ~1,000 registrations a year to 80,000. The kits are free. The brief is ten minutes. The only thing missing is the tasking.
A short, honest registry brief — what the registry is, what donating actually involves, and the myth that kills the yes.
On the training calendar like any other recurring requirement, not a one-off event that dies when a volunteer PCSs.
Soldiers are already lined up, already doing medical paperwork. A swab station costs the SRP line almost nothing.
Reach Soldiers in initial-entry and institutional training and the registry compounds with every cohort — for free, forever.
Run the numbers in ORTB's own 2025 tracker and 55% of the year's 9,460 registrations came from initial-entry and institutional training posts — Fort Knox and Fort Jackson alone accounted for 4,502, through cadet summer training, basic combat training, and the Drill Sergeant Academy. Mass formations produced nearly half the year at 144 registrations an event, against 26 for a reception desk. The leverage is already visible in the data. It just isn't tasked yet.
See the full analysis →Register in the next two minutes.
One structural thing trips everyone up: Salute to Life is for the DoD community; civilians join NMDP or DKMS. Same database, same patients. Here's your door.
Who's registering?
Nothing you tap is stored. This just points you to the correct registry.
No drive on post? You can still register today.
You don't have to wait for a unit event. There are 60+ DoD sites where you can walk in any week, and if none are close, a kit comes to your door.
Walk in near you
60+ labs and blood-donor centers on installations worldwide take walk-ins. Find the closest one below.
Find a site ↓Get a kit mailed
Not near a site? Request a free swab kit to any address, do it at home, mail it back. Postage covered.
Request a kit →Host a drive
Running a formation or unit event? Salute to Life provides every kit, pen, and prepaid envelope — free. The Drive-in-a-Box below has the playbook.
Get the playbook ↓Scheduled drives on the DoD calendar
Live · Salute to Life calendarFort Hood DoD Marrow Donor Registration Event
Fort Hood, TX, USA
Fort Gordon DoD Marrow Donor Drive Event
Fort Gordon, Augusta, GA, USA
Eielson Air Force Base
Alaska354th Medical Group Laboratory
Elmendorf Air Force Base
AlaskaDavis-Monthan Air Force Base
Arizona355 Medical Group / Clinical Laboratory
Edwards Air Force Base
California412th Medical Group Laboratory
Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton
CaliforniaMain Laboratory, 1st Deck, Bldg H-200
Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
CaliforniaMCRD Medical Clinic
Naval Medical Center San Diego
CaliforniaHospital Blood Donor Center
Peterson Air Force Base #1
ColoradoBuilding 1038, Room 10
Peterson Air Force Base #2
Colorado21 Medical Group Clinic
Naval Medicine & Training Unit Groton
ConnecticutNaval Branch Health Clinic
Dover Air Force Base
Delaware436th Medical Group Laboratory
Listed out of service — call to confirmThe Pentagon
Washington DCASBP, DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic — Room 2D1063, Corridor 10
Hurlburt Field
Florida1 SOMG Clinical Laboratory
NAS Jacksonville
Florida2080 Child St, Jacksonville, FL 32214
Patrick Space Force Base
FloridaAFTAC, 1020 South Patrick Drive, FL 32925
Fort Benning
GeorgiaSullivan Memorial Blood Donor Center, 9231 2nd Infantry Division Rd, Bldg 3380
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay
GeorgiaRobins Air Force Base
Georgia78 MDG Laboratory, Bldg 700, 655 Seventh St
15th Medical Group — Hickam Clinic
HawaiiHickam Air Force Base Clinic
Naval Health Clinic Hawaii
HawaiiMakalapa Clinic Lab Bldg 1407 / Kaneohe Bay Lab
Tripler Army Medical Center
HawaiiTripler Blood Donor Center, 2nd Fl Oceanside #2A207
Mountain Home AFB
Idaho90 Hope Dr, Bldg 6000, 1st Fl, Rm G110, ID 83648
Scott Air Force Base
Illinois375th Medical Group Laboratory, 310 W. Losey St, Bldg 1530
Fort Leavenworth
KansasMunson Army Health Center
McConnell Air Force Base
KansasHospital Main Laboratory
Fort Knox
KentuckyIreland Army Health Clinic
Barksdale Air Force Base
Louisiana2nd Medical Group Laboratory
NAS JRB Belle Chasse Clinic
Louisiana400 Russell Ave, Bldg 41, NAS JRB New Orleans 70143
Walter Reed NMMC Bethesda
MarylandOutpatient Phlebotomy Lab, Bldg 19, Rm 1205 / Bldg 9, 2nd Fl
Westover Air Reserve Base
MassachusettsCivilian Personnel Office
Keesler Air Force Base
MississippiKeesler Blood Donor Center, Bldg 5901
Fort Leonard Wood
MissouriGeneral Leonard Wood Army Hospital Laboratory
Offutt Air Force Base
NebraskaEhrling Bergquist Clinic Laboratory
Nellis Air Force Base
Nevada99th Medical Group, Mike O’Callaghan Federal Medical Center Lab
USCG Training Center Cape May
New JerseySamuel J. Call Building
Listed out of service — call to confirmHolloman Air Force Base
New MexicoHolloman AFB Lab
U.S. Military Academy, West Point
New YorkKeller Army Community Hospital Lab, 1st Fl, 900 Washington Rd
MCB Camp Lejeune
North CarolinaHospital Blood Donor Center, 100 Brewster Blvd
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base
North CarolinaBase Hospital Main Laboratory
Womack Army Medical Center (Fort Bragg)
North CarolinaOutpatient Lab, 1st Fl, 2817 Rock Merritt Ave, Stop A, NC 28310
Minot Air Force Base
North Dakota5th Medical Group Laboratory
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
OhioWright-Patterson Medical Center, Blood Donor Center
Fort Sill
OklahomaReynolds Army Health Clinic, Pathology Dept, 4301 Wilson St, OK 73503
Tinker Air Force Base
Oklahoma72 Medical Group Laboratory
Vance Air Force Base
OklahomaHospital Main Laboratory
Ellsworth Air Force Base
South DakotaLaboratory
Charleston Air Force Base
South Carolina628 Medical Group Clinic (in laboratory)
Brooke Army Medical Center (Fort Sam Houston)
TexasAkeroyd Blood Donor Center, 3100 Schofield Rd, TX 78234
Camp Mabry
TexasBldg 75, 2200 W 35th St, TX 78703
Dyess Air Force Base
TexasDyess Medical Group, Laboratory
Fort Bliss
TexasWilliam Beaumont Army Medical Center, Blood Donor Center, Bldg 2489 Ricker Rd, TX 79916
Goodfellow Air Force Base
Texas17th Medical Group, Ross Clinic Laboratory
Lackland Blood Donor Center
Texas2430 Ladd St, Lackland AFB, TX 78236
Naval Branch Health Clinic Fort Worth
Texas1711 Doolittle Ave, TX 76127
Listed out of service — call to confirmSheppard Air Force Base
Texas82nd Medical Group Laboratory, 149 Hart St, Suite 5
Joint Base Langley-Eustis
VirginiaClinical Lab, 1st Fl, USAF Hospital Langley
Naval Medical Center Portsmouth
VirginiaBlood Donor Center, Bldg 2
Listed out of service — call to confirmQuantico Marine Corps Base
VirginiaNaval Health Clinic Quantico, 3259 Catlin Ave, VA 22134
SHAPE (Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe)
BelgiumSHAPE Healthcare Facility
Baumholder Army Health Clinic
GermanyFern St 8747, 55774 Baumholder
Hohenfels Health Clinic
GermanyTruppenuebungsplatz GEB 51, 92366 Hohenfels
Kleber Army Health Clinic
GermanyKleber Kaserne, Mannheimer Str 3287, 67657 Kaiserslautern
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
GermanyDept of Pathology, Bldg 3711, 2nd Fl
U.S. Naval Hospital Guam
Guam1st Fl Laboratory, NMRTC Guam
MCAS Iwakuni
JapanUSN Branch Health Clinic, Bldg 110
Camp Foster, Okinawa
JapanArmed Services Blood Bank Center, Bldg 968
Sites & hours mirror salutetolife.org — always call ahead to confirm before you go. DoD affiliation, general good health, and age 18–60 required to register.
Kill the myth before it kills the yes.
PBSC — it's a blood draw
Nine in ten donations are peripheral blood stem cells. A few days of a prep medication, then you give cells through your arm like donating plasma. Outpatient. No surgery. No hospital stay.
Marrow — the one people picture
Marrow drawn from the back of the hip, under general anesthesia. You're asleep. Soreness fades in 1–2 weeks. It's one donation in ten — and Salute to Life covers travel, lodging, and a support person.
Split per NMDP: "about 90% of donations are peripheral blood stem cells… the other 10% of the time, people are asked to donate bone marrow." The surgical option is the exception, and it keeps getting rarer — brief it that way.
From swab to saving a life — the five steps
Cheek swab + consent form. ~10 minutes. You stay on the registry until age 61.
The lab reads six genes to find who you could match. Takes a few weeks.
If your type fits a patient, a coordinator calls you. Odds are 1 in 430.
Health screen, then PBSC (a blood draw) or marrow. Travel & lodging covered.
Aftercare and reimbursement. A patient gets a second shot at life.
Will you register?
About half the people who finally match can't or won't go through with it — and by then a real patient is already being prepped. Registering is easy. Meaning it is the whole point. So we're asking you the question straight, before the swab, not after.
Nothing you tap here is stored or sent anywhere.
Soldiers have already been the match.
A Marine Raider needs a stem cell transplant — and first he needs a match
A MARSOC Reserve Marine is waiting on a donor who may not be in the registry yet. This is what the gap looks like when it has a name and a face.
Task & Purpose · Task & PurposeAn Air Force officer donated marrow — then got to meet the stranger she saved
A year after donating, Salute to Life asked if she wanted to meet the recipient. She said yes, and met Henry and his family.
Fox News · Fox NewsA 7-year-old girl meets the Guard veteran whose marrow saved her life
Army veteran Mike Laureano donated for a Utah girl with leukemia. The moment they finally met went around the country.
army.mil · 2018A Reserve Soldier meets his bone marrow recipient — 12 years later
Richard Midkiff joined the DoD registry as a sailor in 2002. A teenager named Travis Cimino beat leukemia because of it. Twelve years on, they met face to face.
Huntsman Cancer Institute · March 2025Two strangers, one transplant, and the call that connected them
A donor and recipient met virtually before meeting in person — a clear-eyed look at what the far side of a match actually feels like.
DVIDS · U.S. Army · September 2024Flight school student helps conduct a record-breaking bone marrow drive
WO Stephan Zeller personally accounted for more than 800 of the 4,000+ registrations at Fort Bliss. "Patients who had no one hit me hard."
Everything to stand up a drive.
Operation Ring the Bell's own playbook, cleaned up and packaged. Grab one file or take the whole kit.
A few other programs we found interesting.
While digging into marrow, we kept bumping into other programs the military community is unusually well-placed to help with — giving blood, cord blood, DNA that helps bring the missing home, living donors. Nothing to sign up for here; just a few worth a look.
DPAA Family Reference Samples
Families of the missing/MIA can submit a cheek-swab that helps ID recovered remains — and most eligible families don’t know it exists.
Armed Services Blood Program
The military’s own blood supply, in perennial shortage. A 2025 Red Cross partnership opens it to civilians too.
Public cord-blood banking
Two Army medical centers already partner with public banks — and cord blood is the fastest way to fix registry diversity.
DOVE + NKR Veteran Shield
Living kidney donation built for veterans, with travel costs covered and voucher prioritization.