Four of our members are currently being honored as "Heroes of Emergency Medicine" on the ACEP website. To see who else made the list in other chapters, click here.
Major James Eadie, MD, FACEP
Vice Chair Emergency Medicine/Medical Director/Flight Commander
Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas
Major James Eadie is medical director of the Air Force’s largest and only Level I Trauma Center emergency department, with over 50,000 patient visits annually and 48 military emergency medicine residents. He has served twice in Iraq, logging 19 combat medical missions. He most recently served as medical director of the Air Force Theater Hospital Emergency Department in Balad.
Passionate about improving medical care in the developing world, Major Eadie has volunteered extensively overseas. He served as director, Guyana Cooperative Education Program, Guyana, South America, where he collaborated with the Guyanese Ministry of Health and local physicians to design need-based educational programs. He also co-founded the Belize Cooperative Health Education Program, Belize. Working with Omni Med, he developed initial plans for the first continuing medical education program for the country of Belize. Major Eadie is president of Government Services ACEP and is co-chair of the ACEP Federal Government Affairs Committee.
Major 
Robert B. Blankenship, MD, FACEP
Medical Director
St. Vincent Medical Center Northeast
Carmel, IN
Major Robert Blankenship has served on active duty for 11 years in various positions, including emergency medicine assistant program director, ultrasound director and transitional program director. He started the military’s first Tactical Ultrasound Course and served as the first emergency medicine consultant on the Army’s Central Simulation Committee. Major Blankenship has served and continues to serve on numerous ACEP committees, as well as the ACEP News Editorial Advisory Board. He also served on Government Services ACEP’s board of directors and as its president.
Major Blankenship has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the “Bronze Star Medal” for meritorious service while serving as task force surgeon with 1-66 AR, 4ID during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the 2003 “Joseph F. Waeckerle Founder’s Award” for contributions to the Emergency Medicine Resident’s Association.
LTC(P) Andre Pennardt, MD, FACEP
U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Dr. Andre Pennardt has served in the Army for more than 16 years and has worked extensively with a variety of units within Army Special Operations Command in positions such as Command Surgeon, Group Surgeon and Special Operations Task Force Surgeon. He has deployed for more than 32 months to Iraq and Afghanistan on a voluntary basis.Dr. Pennardt was awarded three Bronze Stars for his actions in combat, including management of a mass casualty incident resulting from a bombing and establishment of a comprehensive medical support system for special operations units. During his deployments, Dr. Pennardt logged several hundred combat hours under some of the most dangerous flying conditions in the world and saved multiple lives, both on the battlefield and during high-risk mountain rescues. He also received four Air Medals for his achievements during specific combat missions. All of these accomplishments and more make Dr. Pennardt a true hero of emergency medicine.
William Michael Roberts, MD, MBA, FACEP
Rear Admiral, Medical Corps, United States Navy
Chief of the Navy Medical Corps
Medical Officer of the Marine Corps
U.S. Navy
Washington, DC
Rear Admiral Roberts is currently the senior emergency physician in the Navy. He has impacted virtually all of the Navy’s current and past emergency medicine physicians with his teaching, mentorship and personal example. Admiral Roberts is the calm voice of reason when things aren’t going well in the pit or when the demands of hospital administration are overwhelming.
As the Specialty Leader for Emergency Medicine to the Navy Surgeon General in the late 1990s, Admiral Roberts was a significant architect of the emergency medicine system the Navy now enjoys, and stewarded the huge growth in Navy emergency physicians, their assignment worldwide and the diversity of their career options. He has mentored virtually all of the Navy’s emergency physicians, and the most senior among them are building on his legacy. His efforts to train, lead and inspire emergency physicians are not confined to the Navy, as he is active with many specialists and on many fronts.