The Armed Services Blood Program set up shop at Fort Campbell’s Soldier Support Center Monday-Thursday to collect whole blood donations and screen Soldiers to identify those qualified to participate in walking blood banks.

Twenty-two staff members from the Fort Bragg Blood Donor Center visited the installation in support of the mission.

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Corley, ASBP director, said this event supports 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division’s, medical readiness efforts preceding their upcoming deployment to Iraq. This winter deployment is in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

The ASBP is the official military provider of blood products to U.S. Armed Forces. The ASBP’s mission is to provide quality blood products and services for all customers during peacetime and war. The program is tasked with the collection, processing, storage and transportation of blood and blood products to ill or injured service members, veterans and their Families worldwide.

“The donations and screenings [this week] are focused on Type O personnel,” Corley said. “Organizations such as the Joint Trauma System and Committee or Tactical Combat Casualty Care state that the preferred blood product in an emergency is whole blood and the preferred type of whole blood is Type O.”

All service members were encouraged to donate and get screened, despite their blood types.

“We always have an urgent need for blood and we will gladly accept donations,” Corley said.

Walking blood banks

This week’s event is unique because Soldiers were screened to identify potential walking blood banks, Corley said.

ASBP has hosted events like this for the special operations community for a few years, but now they also are offering them to other units such as the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. Walking blood bank screenings and whole blood drives have become more common over the past year, Corley said.

As of noon Wednesday, 189 service members were screened to be potential walking blood bank donors.

Walking blood bank donors are service members who can be called on to donate fresh whole blood to another person during an emergency, Corley said. The preferred fresh whole blood donors are low titer O donors who have been screened for transfusion transmitted diseases and medical history, he said.

All screening results are entered in the Theater Medical Data Store, a web-based system that gives providers the ability to view and document an individual’s patient complete theater electronic medical record.

“There could be times during a deployment when an emergency occurs – maybe it’s a mass casualty event or a patient who takes a mass amount of blood. For those particular patients, service members might have to donate blood in an emergency while deployed, on the spot, that’s where walking blood banks are needed,” Corley said.

In the chaos of a life-threatening emergency, having a roster of screened service members prepared is beneficial to medical providers, he said.

It is imperative service members know their blood type, because it could help save their lives or someone else’s, Corley said.

“For military personnel, especially those preparing to deploy, knowing your blood type is important because you might find yourself at that point of injury or at a deployed medical facility where they have that massively bleeding patient or a mass casualty and need extra blood,” Corley said. “It is important for deploying service members to know their blood type because it helps facilitate the appropriate whole blood product in the event of an emergency.”

Specialist Andrew Arthur, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Abn. Div., was screened to be a walking blood donor during the event Wednesday by his colleague Spc. Kimberly Kearney, 1-506th Inf. Regt., 1st BCT, 101st Abn. Div., who is a combat medic specialist.

Arthur is Type O positive. Being screened was part of Arthur’s preparations for his first deployment.

“When we are downrange if we go into Vampire Protocol I will be one of the people they can draw up to a liter of blood from to give to someone else in need,” Arthur said.

The Vampire Protocol is a medical guideline for giving emergent blood transfusions that is designed for a patient who has suffered significant blood loss from combat trauma such as amputation of limbs or internal bleeding, according to ASBP officials.

Donating blood

One hundred and eighty-seven units of whole blood were collected during the event as of noon Wednesday. A unit of blood is about one pint.

Blood donations are essential, especially during the holiday season, Corley said.

“Blood has a short shelf life and there’s always a need for it,” he said. “Of course we have a need for blood in brick and mortar military hospitals, but we also have to think about the deployed service members. They absolutely need those blood products, so it’s critical to donate through ASBP.”

ASBP supports active duty service members, retirees and military Families. Every blood donation is important, Corley said. Forty or more units of blood may be needed for a single trauma victim and one unit of blood can sustain a premature infant’s life for two weeks, according to an ASBP report.

Since the ASBP’s inception more than 60 years ago, more than 1.5 million units of blood have been provided to treat battlefield illnesses and injuries, according to the report.

Sergeant Edward Lingad, 1-506th Inf. Regt., 1st BCT, 101st Abn. Div., has Type O negative blood, making him a universal donor. Knowing he is a universal donor, makes him feel responsible for donating blood as often as possible, Lingad said.

“I know my blood can help lots of other people,” Lingad said.

Lingad overcame his fear of needles to donate blood, because he wanted to help his fellow Bastogne Soldiers.

“I was supposed to be deploying with my unit, but the Army told me I am going to be a recruiter, so giving some blood to my people is the least I can do,” Lingad said. “I know this blood is going to where they are going and that’s important to me.”

ASBP is planning to return to the installation for future blood drives and walking blood bank screenings, said Linda Ellerbe, Fort Bragg blood center public affairs specialist.