On March 10, 2020, just days before Joint Munitions Command employees were sent home to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JMC sponsored a U.S. Department of Defense Salute to Life Bone Marrow Registry Drive at Rock Island Arsenal.
RIA senior leaders toiled with cancelling the event due to risks associated with COVID-19, but the drive went on with extreme caution. The Marrow Registry Drive was a group project for students participating in Army Sustainment Command’s nine-month Journey to Leadership Program. On that day, the students along with several volunteers from many RIA organizations, gathered at Heritage Hall and successfully added more than 200 willing donors to the donor registry.
On Dec. 16, 2022, almost three years after the Marrow Registry Drive, Tanner Schuldt, program analyst for JMC, received the call that he was a match for a 54-year-old female needing a bone marrow transplant. Schuldt was a student in the ASC JTL program and joined the Marrow Registry that day.
Marrow donations and peripheral blood stem cell donations are used to harvest healthy marrow and cells to be transplanted to a blood cancer patient. The most common are leukemia and lymphoma.
On Feb. 26, 2023, Schuldt and his wife drove from Moline, Illinois to Madison, Wisconsin, in the middle of an ice storm, to begin the process of boosting and harvesting his marrow. On Feb. 27, in less than three hours, more than 10 million cells were harvested and Schuldt was back on his feet. Throughout the entire process, he felt like himself and was able to live a normal healthy life, to include working out before and after his marrow donation.
“I would donate again in a heartbeat. The donation process was not as difficult as I thought it would be and the medical staff made it a pleasant experience,” Schuldt said. “On top of that, it was an avenue that allowed me to give hope to someone battling cancer.”
Schuldt’s mother, Lisa Schuldt, Chief of Army Sustainment Command’s Training and Program Branch, served as the Program Lead for the 2020 Journey to Leadership cohort. She was an advocate of the Marrow Donor Drive as a group project and elected to join the registry with her son.
“It was very exciting and rewarding to see how much time and effort the students gave to make the marrow donor drive such a success,” she said. “The goal was to be able to save at least one life and with Tanner’s match and donation we’ve hit that goal.”
Schuldt’s spouse supported him on his journey every step of the way. Unfortunately, they are no strangers to the words blood cancer and transplant. Recently, two family members underwent a transplant, and they have learned that another close family member will be having a transplant in June.
“The Salute to Life Program made it easy for my husband and I to focus on the donation process. The program took care of our travel arrangements, hotel, food and even the cost of childcare. We were able to travel to a town we have never visited to have his cells harvested,” Schuldt’s wife said. “I would encourage everyone to learn more and consider joining the marrow donor registry.”
The DoD Salute to Life program was created to help DoD members and their dependents become volunteer bone marrow donors. Since its inception in 1991, more than one million new potential donors have been recruited and more than 8,000 cellular donations have been made. Through the DoD program, there is no financial cost to the donor, no personal use of annual or sick leave, and extremely low health risks to the donor.
Chad Balance, senior recruiter at Salute to Life, has served the DoD program during both his military and Civilian career for the past 24 years.
“We saw a decline of DoD installations hosting marrow donor drives, and overall people joining the registry the last couple years due to COVID-19,” Balance said. “But I am confident that we are trending in the right direction, thanks to the many volunteers, advocates, survivors, and donors speaking out about the importance of the registry.”
Rock Island Arsenal is home to the headquarters of ASC, JMC, Army Contracting Command, First Army, Army Corps of Engineers, and the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center. Each organization was represented in the JTL course or at the Marrow Donor Registry Drive.
To learn more about joining the Salute to Life registry or to host a Marrow Donor Drive, please visit: Salute to Life
For those interested in joining the Marrow Donor Registry, but not affiliated with the DoD, please visit: Donate Marrow or Blood Stem Cells | Be The Match or US | DKMS
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