Operation Pulse Lift - Military Support

Operation Pulse LIft 

Support to the 

Armed Services Blood Program Office

One of the most unique missions, provided by Civil Air Patrol's (CAP) Operation Pulse Lift, is its direct support for blood collections conducted by the Department of Defense. This military mission is sponsored by the U.S. Department of War (DoW)/Defense Health Agency's Armed Services Blood Program Division (ASBPD). The ASBPD is the official blood program of the U.S. military. The are a multi-servce/joint operation that collects, tests, stores, transports and distributes blood products to military locations around the world, wherever and whenever it’s needed most.From their establishment 70 years ago as a joint field operating agency in 1952 under President Harry Truman and becoming a fully operational blood program by 1962, the ASBP was a distinct program by the time the Vietnam War started, ready to support the military's blood product needs. Our decades long mission of providing lifesaving support for our warfighters carries on today.

In 2020, as part of Operation Pulse Lift's growing mission during CAP's COVID-19 response, CAP teams across the nation supported multiple installation blood drives. In August 2021, members of the Alamo Composite Squadron supported the Lackland Blood Donor Center with an emergency blood collection that supported military wounded evacuees, in Germany and Washington D.C., from the Kabul Airport Suicide Bombing. 

On 7 March 2026, the mission was mobilized to surge support to the ASBPD - Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Lab (ASWBPL) at Joint Base - McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ; and the Air Force Blood Bank at Joint Base-San Antonio (Lackland) in support of the U.S. Operations against Iran in Operation Epic Fury. The mission also supported blood collections at many other military installations in support of the on-going combat casualty care mission. See article at https://www.cap.news/p/civil-air-patrol-assists-u-s-air-force-with-blood-processing-mission .

Installations where CAP has/is supporting ASBPD collections include

1. Joint Base -San Antonio (Lackland) TX

2. Dyess Air Force Base (AFB), Abilene, TX  

3. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO  

4. Petersen AFB, Colorado Springs, CO  

5. Puerto Rico, Roosevelt Roads NAS, PR

6. Ft Huachuca Army Base, Sierra Vista, AZ  

7. Ft Carson Army Base, Colorado Springs, CO  

8. Ft Knox, Army Base, KY

9. Joint Base Elmendorf - Ft Richardson, Anchorage, AK

10. Eilsen AFB, Fairbanks, AK

11. Ft Wainwright Army Base, AK

12. Naval Post Graduate School - Monterey, CA  

13. Beale AFB, CA  

14. Travis AFB, CA 

15. Whidbey Island Naval Base & Naval Air Station, WA 

16. Cannon AFB, NM

17. U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY

18. U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD

19. Sheppard AFB, TX

20. Keesler AFB, MS

21. Pensacola Naval Air Station, FL

22. Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ

23. F.E. Warren AFB, WY

24. Maxwell AFB, AL

25. Naval Medical Center- San Diego

26. Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Lab (ASWBL) - East, Joint Base - McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst

27. Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Lab - West, Travis AFB, CA

28. Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV

29. Joint Base - Pearl Harbor/Hickam, HI

30. Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, HI

31. Schofield Barracks, HI

32. Naval Medical Center - Blood Bank, Camp Foster, Okinawa

33. Ft Bragg, NC

For more information on how to support your local military installation's blood drives, and the ASBPD, contact pulselift@capnhq.gov or call (480) 298-2603.