Book excerpt: From the Preface: This book marks the first 50 years of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). It documents a chronology highlighting some of the Command's many contributions to ensuring that world-class medical technologies are available to our service men and women. Our organizations and programs have evolved to support the needs of the warfighter in training, pre-deployment operations, deployment to nonhostile and hostile operations, post-deployment recovery and reconstitution, and into retirement.